Promises Kept
by Maloreiy
Summary: Devon Adair and John Danziger were notorious for not being able to get along. But when she finally comes out of cold sleep, maybe now there is a chance to start something new from an old friendship. D&D. [Work in progress]
1. Prologue

Promises Kept

(Author's Note: This prologue takes place during the episode All About Eve, and shows bits and pieces of a few weeks following it, in order to set the stage for the rest of the story. This makes the Prologue a bit longer than I intend for the rest of the chapters. I watched the episode carefully for details and for correct timing, as I want to stay as close to the Earth 2 canon as possible. I also tried hard to find what the writers of Earth 2 had intended for John and Devon, and incorporated that into my story. If you spot any mistakes, I will be happy to consider fixing them.)

PROLOGUE

---------------------

She was fading in and out. She could feel how hard it was for her to concentrate, and the Terrians made it known that her time was short. She was so tired, but she couldn't stop now. There was the Colony ship to think about, and her dream of a home and a cure for Syndrome families. All the members of Eden Advance were counting on her knowledge and her plans to help them arrive safely, to start a new life at New Pacifica, or to hitch a ride back to their old one. And there were the Terrians to think about, too.

There were so many people with so many plans, but right now all that mattered was getting to New Pacifica safely. That was first. The rest would come later. Someone had to know all the things she had inside her head. Someone had to understand why she made all her decisions. Someone had to be able to take her place.

The Terrians on the Dreamplane with her told her again that her time was short. The person they were calling to was not responding. His heart and his head were heavy with worry, and his reluctance to dream was strong.

Devon couldn't give up now. There wasn't much time, and there was so much to do. She called to him, "John!...John!...John, I need you!"

---------------------

He turned restlessly in his sleep. He wanted nothing more than to sink into blackness for just a few hours. The days were hard, and like everyone else he hadn't been feeling top form lately. A few hours could do him good. Except something kept calling him upwards into light. _Ignore it_, he thought to himself. _Blackness, blackness_. He called back the dark, and could feel it coming back over him.

Then, as if far in the distance, he was hearing his name called. _What is it now?_ he thought irately. _You'd think things couldn't run for a few hours without me. _He turned around, slowly swimming towards the area in his mind that seemed filled with bright lights. He regretfully felt the darkness falling away behind him, and determined to really give someone hell. He went purposefully forward, a familiar voice breaking through the dimness.

"…you stubborn idiot, Danziger! There isn't much time and you're wasting it ignoring my voice just so you can sleep a little long—"

"Adair?" John boomed. He heard little echoes in the background whispering, _Adair? Adair? Adair! Adair!_ in varying tones around the edges of his hearing. "What's going on here!" _What…what…what's going on here? _the echoes repeated. John gritted his teeth, and attempted to ignore the echoes, and focus on Devon right in front of him. But her image kept swaying and swirling. He was gonna get a headache. Damn, if only he'd had more sleep. And what the hell was she doing up, anyway? She'd collapsed just that day, lunging at Bennett. She looked like she was going to fall over any minute now, and here she is chewing HIM out.

He opened his mouth to really lay into her asinine ideas, when she said, "No, John! Listen to me! There's no time!"

He had no idea what she was talking about. She was talking fast, and he could just make out some of the words. New Pacifica. The Terrians. Eden Advance. Something about knowledge. She was worried. He could tell. She was always worried, and he could always tell, but this was different. She was bone-deep scared out of her mind.

"Devon, what is it? What do you need?" He saw a look in her eyes that terrified him. He didn't know why.

"Promise, John….Take care of…Eden….group…kids…New Pacifica…" He could tell she was weak, and somehow that affected how many of her words were clear enough to hear. But he knew what she was saying anyhow.

"Devon, you're gonna get better. We're all going to be fine. We'll find a way."

"John!" she cried, frustrated that he wasn't understanding, "Promise, John!"

"Adair!" he roared at her, failing to understand her attitude. It sounded like Devon was going to give up. Like she knew something they didn't. And the fact that she could be hiding something really pissed him off. The fact that she sounded like she was about to do something stupid like sacrifice herself for the greater good, pissed him off even MORE. "What is going on here? Tell me what's going on right now!"

She just closed her eyes, obviously feeling weak. "John?" she begged.

He hated to hear it. He hated to say the words; it felt like admitting something was going to go wrong. "Devon, I already promised you. You know I'll do everything in my power to make sure Eden Advance reaches New Pacfica together. And I won't let anything happen to Uly. I promise, I promise, okay!"

She was starting to fade away, and John was starting to panic. He got it now. He didn't have any Dreamplane experience, but he knew this had to be where he was. That's why Devon had the energy to get up and yell at him, when only today…today?...she didn't have the energy to stand. He noticed there was a ring of Terrians around them, staffs raised. They didn't look ready to attack, but they were definitely ready to do something.

He called out to Devon's twisting image, "Devon, you have to tell me what's going on. You didn't need my promise. Why did you call me here?"

"…have to…have to…take me with you…" she tried to force the words out, but was having trouble.

"What? To New Pacifica? Of course we're going to take you with us! Devon, we are not leaving you behind!" He felt his anger rising. Anger at her, for being so sick, anger at this world, for making them all sick, anger at Bennett for refusing to help them, and anger at himself because he couldn't stop the worst from happening, and because right now he couldn't even understand what she needed.

"John, take me!" Devon cried, fighting with all her strength to stay on the Dreamplane, reaching out to the Terrians to help her. None of them moved. John strode forward to grab her, but it was like holding on to nothing, she was only partially there.

"…not…body…till Terrians cure…take _me_…promise to take me, let me in, John! Take me…take me…take me…" She was really getting weak now. She could barely think straight. No wonder she wasn't making any sense. It was getting too close. She could feel herself breaking down and breaking apart.

John just held her tighter, made afraid by her urgency and her fear. "I promise, Devon. I promise. Whatever you want, whatever you need. Devon, don't go yet…"

She looked at him, relief in her eyes. She turned toward the Terrians, "Is that enough? Did you hear?"

They had heard. They lowered their heads, and their staffs began to spark. Looking around him, John got suspicious. He wished he knew what was going on. He felt Devon collapse in his arms, slowly fading out. His stomach wrenched, knowing the dream was over. He was going to have to face the world now, a world with Devon Adair dying in her sleep. He didn't know if he could endure that. He called to her repeatedly, wishing she'd come back and yell at him. Then he yelled at the Terrians, accusing them of taking her away.

When the blast of light hit him, he barely even noticed, so great was his grief and rage, it was as if his own mind and heart exploded. In the silence he heard words whispered around him, echoes, "take me…take me…me…me…" And his own cry, "Devon!"

And then there was peace. And whatever had happened was over. The blackness came back to him, and settled around his mind. An image of Devon the only thing left for him to see. He reached, and a more familiar, a more comforting dream of Devon came to him.

---------------------

He was being called again. He resisted. It couldn't be Devon this time. She was in his arms, sleeping. She was safe. He held her tighter, and felt her begin to thin and disappear. _No! Not again!_ he grabbed at her, but she was fading. Fading, and leaving him…

A crack of early morning light burst through his eyelids, shattering the peaceful darkness. His head felt heavy, like he'd just banged it on the underside of the TransRover. Images flooded him in a swirl. He didn't try to make sense of them. He just pushed and pushed until they were all gone.

It was True calling him. "Daddy? Daddy!" It was a little-girl thing to say. She only did it when something was wrong.

John Danziger sat up straight in bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, suddenly painfully alert, and focused on only one person. "What's wrong, baby?" She was standing by his bed, and he reached out to grab her, instinct kicking in to automatically check if anything was wrong.

"Daddy, I—" her voice sounded near tears, "I was calling to you and you didn't wake up. I thought…I thought maybe something had happened to you." She hugged him hard. He just held her, stroking her back. It was only two days ago they'd had to bury Eben. Bess had collapsed that night, with Devon collapsing yesterday. And Bennett had died last night, for different reasons. True must have found out. Everyone was feeling weak, everyone was worried they would be next.

Except, apparently True wasn't worried she would be next, True was worried about something much worse, that HE would be next. He just held her hard, and promised that they would all be fine as soon as they figured out how to fix this thing. He promised he would never leave her. In the back of his mind, he wryly observed that he was just making promises left and right. He hoped he could make them all come true. If he couldn't, it didn't really matter, they wouldn't know. But he would know. He would die knowing he couldn't keep his promises.

Feeling better, True said she would go help Bess, and Danziger got up to get dressed. A glance out the tent door showed him that the day was well begun. He cursed automatically, the loss of working daylight hours grating his sense of efficiency. No wonder True was worried, he didn't often sleep into full morning. There wasn't much that needed to be done, and there was that chance that tomorrow none of this would matter. But if today or tomorrow or the next day or the next is the day they needed to leave, he wanted them to be ready. They couldn't rely on chances. But if one appeared, they had to be ready to take it.

He headed out to start work on the rail. He'd been hearing a rattle he didn't like, and figured he'd ask Alonzo to help him pinpoint it. The bright light from the sun stabbed at his eyes, and for a minute he felt dizzy, confused. It reminded him of…something. He shook his head, trying to clear it of images that kept trying to crowd in. The echoes of a dream he could barely remember just brushed the edges of his mind. He knew there were more promises. He struggled to remember.

Devon! Some of the dream rushed back to him. Of Devon weak and begging. Fading away in his arms…

Oh, God. Panic gripped him. He'd forgotten. Was it just a dream? He turned, searching for her tent, the disorientation from the biostat chip giving him a momentary lost feeling. He couldn't focus, afraid of what he'd see. He stopped his legs from running to her tent, and yanking her door aside just so he could see for himself that she was still alive, still breathing. He forced himself to walk. He forced himself not to yell for Julia. Even on this world, sometimes dreams were still dreams. Please let it all be some crazy dream, some hallucination that he can blame on Eve.

He was halfway across the camp, on wobbly knees, when he heard her voice. Low, steady, talking casually. She was there, seated at a table off to the side, her head turned away from him. She wasn't in her death throes. The life wasn't slowly leaking out of her, leaving them all leaderless and heartbroken. Devon Adair was still alive, and as healthy as any of the rest of them who were dying slowly on this far-flung world.

He closed his eyes, took a second to breathe, and felt his heartbeat pumping harshly through his veins. He told himself he would react the same way if any of the group fell ill. They were a family, and it hurt to lose any of his family. It didn't mean more, it didn't hurt deeper just because it was _her_.

He opened his eyes again, and looked directly at her. She was pale, moving carefully like she was fragile. _Devon, fragile?_ He snorted to himself. That woman had a backbone of steel. Every one of them could keel over from this thing, and she would crawl across the continent all by herself if it meant finding a way to save them. She was not fragile.

But when she got up to talk to Yale, she shook just a little bit, as if it were hard to keep her balance. John felt an answering quiver in his legs, and he turned away before the fear could shoot through him again. He gruffly yelled out, "Solace!" not bothering to check where Alonzo was, or if he was busy.

When Alonzo came around a tent with a questioning look, John ignored it and just pointed at the Rail. He wouldn't let the damn dream interrupt any more of his day.

---------------------

He couldn't watch. He didn't think he could bear it. Devon had placed a weight on him, he had promised, and if the group needed a leader, they would have one. But that meant he couldn't watch while the door was sealed. He couldn't get up every day and tell them to move forward with the picture of that door closing on the cryo-chamber emblazoned behind his eyelids.

That's what he repeated to himself as he turned away. He had to be strong for the group. But he didn't believe it as he heard the door hiss and lock, the temperature inside falling rapidly, freezing Devon's failing body. He could give a million good reasons why it was best that he didn't look, but he didn't have any good ones. He only had the truth, and that was that it just hurt too much. He didn't know why his heart ached so fiercely. Maybe it was remembering Elle, and how she had lain so quiet and still on the neuro-support units. Maybe it was knowing that he was now responsible for making sure the rest of the group never had to face a similar circumstance.

Maybe it was something else. Maybe. She had been a leader to the group, a pain in the ass, yes, but she gave the group a purpose and a dream. She drove them to their limits. Painfully exacting, but never afraid to show that she was willing to work just as hard to achieve the results they all needed. She was what everyone needed in a tight spot. They had argued to hell and back again, but she had been his friend. And maybe…maybe…

Hell, he didn't know. But he did know he would give anything to trade places with her behind that glass. _Devon_, he whispered in his mind. _I can't do this without you_.

His world went black.

---------------------

It had only been a couple of weeks since he had made the decision to move out, and continue the quest towards New Pacifica. Someone had to say the words. The decision, while everyone ultimately agreed, had to be spoken by someone. And he couldn't put that responsibility on anyone else. It was the right thing to do. It was the only way to keep Devon's dream of building a home for the Syndrome families from falling to pieces.

The trouble was that having been the one to make the decision, every step he took away from that desolate spot in the desert made marks on his heart. It didn't help much that he knew it was what Devon would have wanted.

In fact, actually, it made things worse. He was constantly debating with himself over things that Devon would have wanted. Would she do this? Would she do that? He found himself asking out loud, sometimes. He found himself _answering_ out loud, sometimes. He tried to keep it from the group, since they already thought he was sort of going crazy with responsibility. He didn't want them to think he was talking to himself, too. Arguing, really.

He rubbed at his face as he walked alongside the TransRover. All the walking every day seemed to just give him hours of empty space with which to ponder the would-haves and the should-haves. He tried to fill all his hours with work, and since there was much to do, most of his mind could be kept occupied.

But the silent hours where everyone wearily trudged forward, and he only had his thoughts for company…those were the times he'd run over his choices and his decisions, not the least one being to leave Devon behind in her cryogenic sleep pod. And if he thought hard enough, and dug deep enough he'd find himself playing the "What would Devon do?" game. Or "What would Devon think?" "What would Devon say?"

God, he missed her. Not just her laugh or her smile or the sunlight glinting off her hair, or a thousand other things that Lonz could probably recite off the top of his head as being typical. No, he missed the way she led people. The way she could infuse her dreams into other people. What did they run on for all those months, if not the fuel of her passion and her will?

There was a drag in the group now. Everyone was tired. Depressed, maybe. They'd lost Eben. They'd nearly lost Bess, and Alonzo. They'd nearly lost everyone, matter of fact. And then, of course…Devon. This group needed someone to revive them, to build them up, to give them a purpose, and a direction.

That was what Devon would do. Not because she felt the group needed it, but because that's what she did. That's who she was.

He rubbed his eyes again. He couldn't stop thinking about her. At night, he dreamt about her. Nothing he could ever recall. She was just always there.

Liar. Some dreams he could recall. But they were always the ones he preferred not to think about. It was the ones that seemed important that always slipped his mind. Not the ones where she was laughing or where they argued just to hear each other's voices...those ones came through every morning crystal clear. But he knew there was something important he was supposed to know, and he could never get it out in the open.

Something about promises. He remembered making promises. Yeah, the kids, Eden Advance…Like he'd really needed to say them. He would die before letting anything happen to those kids, and he'd work himself to the bone if it meant Eden Advance made it safely to their destination. She knew that. Then why did she need the promises? Again?

An image came back to him. It was an image of himself, looking scared and confused, and saying, "I promise, I promise." And the image swiveled to face the Terrians. "Is that enough? Did you hear?"

The Terrians, what did they have to do with all of this? His brow contracted in annoyance as he pondered the significance. He forgot to wonder why the image in the memory was of himself and not of Devon.

He felt a grief in the back of his mind, and he closed himself to it. He wouldn't let it distract him. There was so much to do now. Deciding to let Devon rest for a while wasn't the end of things just the beginning of a whole lot more work for everyone else.

He cursed. He could have been back in cryo-sleep himself. Hurtling away from this planet at near-light speed, back to…back to…back to what? To the Stations? To the life of a Drone? A life he promised himself his daughter would not grow up to raise her own children in? She'd be no safer there than here.

He ran his hands through his unruly hair. There was two now. He had two children to watch out for. _Had to go and leave, didn't you, Adair?_ And who was going to end up having to lead this ragtag bunch of misfits? _Me, that's right._

He looked up at the sky, and his thoughts abruptly went on pause. The sun was slinking down over the mountain ranges, and if they wanted to set up camp before full dark they should start now. This was as good a place as any. He raised his hand, and yelled at the ATV up ahead to slow down and make camp. He heard the group's thankful sighs. They were tired. Most of them had fully recovered from the illness that came with the biostat implants, but they still had long days and short nights and miles to cover. Everyone was tired.

For the next few hours, John kept himself busy. There was stuff that needed to be done. He had to check with all the guards for guard duty, he had to consult with the others over their plans for the next few days, he had to update his log over the ground they had covered. Julia insisted on it. She said they couldn't risk that something important be forgotten because someone hadn't thought to record it somewhere. That someone, pointedly, being him. Whatever, it made good sense, so he did it faithfully everyday.

He thought about what Adair would say when she listened to them. He thought about how she would pick apart his plans and his decisions, and he would defend them all, even when she was right. He winced. It was the Devon Game, again.

He turned around to go find something to occupy his time, and he came across the kids, sitting near the fire, discussing intently whatever subject Yale had just taught them about.

"…that's why your hair is curly!" True was excitedly telling Uly. "Even though Devon's isn't at all. You must have gotten that from your father's genes!"

"Yeah?" Uly said, uncertain why he felt like arguing at all, "well, your hair is straight. Does that mean your mother's hair was straight, since your dad's isn't?"

True was unimpressed with the comeback. "Duh. My dad said so lots of times. Doesn't your mom talk about your dad at all?"

"No, she doesn't. Maybe he did have curly hair." He didn't sound happy about the prospect. It could have been just the mention of Devon had him feeling sad, or he could have thought that he might never get to hear about his father if Devon never woke up. John quickly stepped in, afraid to let the discussion turn into something morbid.

"Hey kiddos," he ruffled True's hair. And on second thought, he ruffled Uly's, too. "What sort of knowledge have you been picking up from this computer brain here?"

"Biogenetics, dad." True informed him. One thing John had regretted was that he would never be able to afford the type of teaching that True deserved. She was quick and smart, but all she could have while her dad was just a Drone was the public schools in the Quadrant, where you could find yourself with a knife to your head before any real knowledge filled it. And now she had a Yale to teach her. It pleased him to see that she wasn't wasting the opportunity to get an education.

"Biogenetics? That's too much for me!" He mimed warding off his head from an overflow of information. He was rewarded with a giggle. Uly wasn't comfortable yet being close to anyone, but he was slowly beginning to act normal again. It helped that everyone was always nice to him, not treating him like there was something wrong. He liked Mr. Danziger.

"Mr. Danziger," Uly began. John interrupted and told him for the second time just that day that it was alright to call him by his first name. Uly didn't acknowledge this. He continued, "You think my dad had curly hair?" A finger reached up to twirl one of the light brown locks self-consciously. "True says it doesn't look at all like my mom's."

A flash of pain came to John. Devon would have seen it right away. Devon would have spotted it a mile away, and offered this boy the reassurance he needed. John was nearly too late. The boy had just lost—if only temporarily—his mother and thus his whole world. He was losing his connections to her, and to replace one with the image of a father he'd never met was to lose even more.

John reached up to touch Uly's hair. Two pictures flashed in his mind. One was of a young man in a grey suit. His eyes were dark, and so was his straight hair. He was neat and clean, the picture of perfection with his hair styled perfectly into place. He would be handsome if it wasn't for the displeasure vivid on his face, and the flash of anger in his eyes. The other picture was of an older man, wavy hair cropped close to his head. This man was in a suit from a decade or two earlier, but obviously very expensively tailored. His features appeared chiseled into his face, and his eyes were unreadable, but not unkind.

"Actually, Uly" John spoke, "your dad had straight hair, too. Dark, like your mom's. You get these curls," and he playfully tugged at a couple "from Grandfather Adair."

"Really?" Uly looked hopeful. "But…Grandfather Adair is bald."

True laughed. She was more than two years older than him. That meant she was probably, like, twice as smart. "He wasn't ALWAYS bald, probably. When he was younger, I guess, he had hair like yours, before it all started falling out because of stress and stuff."

Uly laughed. "Hey Yale," he turned to the tutor. John had nearly forgotten he'd been sitting there listening to the conversation. "Is that what happened to you? Why you don't have hair, I mean?"

Yale was looking at John funny, but he spared a glance at True and Uly to assure them that his hair fell out just because he was old, not because he was stressed out about anything. The kids accepted this explanation and then decided they would go bug Bess to see about giving them something to snack on before dinner.

John called out to them not to cause any trouble, but he smiled to himself as they ran off. Two weeks ago Uly wouldn't run anywhere, let alone to find something like a snack. If it took a pilfered fruit or two to make him feel more at ease, then John was willing to spare it.

He turned back to Yale to see him on the verge of speaking. Yale was not one for spontaneous exchange of words. John could see him choosing his vocabulary carefully, and he lifted a wary eyebrow.

"John," he began, hesitating. "I am curious about something. If you don't think it is too personal a question?" He looked at Eden Advance's new leader, afraid to overstep his boundaries, but when Danziger didn't say anything, he felt it safe to continue. "How did you have that information about Uly's father and his grandfather? Was it something that Devon shared with you?"

There was a silence from John.

_Icicles dripping down my back_, was all he could think of. That's what it felt like when Yale's words finally made sense to him. Like frozen water was coursing through his veins from the top of his head all the way down to his toes. He remembered seeing the two images in his mind. He knew who they were. He knew what it meant regarding Uly. He knew Devon had never shared any such thing with him.

He was getting very cold. He opened his mouth to answer, but his tongue was too dry. He looked at Yale, seeing confusion on the tutor's face. Wetting his lips, he slowly said, "Was I right, Yale?"

His only answer was a short nod. The world reeled just a little bit, and John firmly put it back into place. It was just a coincidence, of course. Yet another one of the strange things that happens when you put people into tough situations, and take away their sleep and make them face the unknown. Of course.

John gave a short laugh, and got up and left the fireside.

---------------------

"Are you saying I'm crazy, Doc?" Danziger asked, point-blank. His stance was belligerent, his jaw set.

Julia hesitated, unwilling to condemn or deny. She leaned forward from her perch on her chair. "I'm saying, John, that the grieving process is different for everyone. There are thoughts and emotions that must be dealt with, and how that happens depends on the person."

"She's not dead," he said. Firmly. Because he couldn't afford to be the one to suggest that it might be more the other way around. "There's nothing to grieve."

Alonzo looked sideways at Julia. She looked helplessly back at him. He cleared his throat, "No one's saying she's dead, Danziger. We're still going to find a way to help her, and when we do, we'll come back and get her. But that doesn't change the fact that she's not here right now. And I think that's the part that Julia's talking about."

Danziger was pacing the floor in the med-tent that Julia called home. He rubbed at his face, trying to make sense of the last hour. It didn't do much good since the purpose of the last hour was trying to make sense of how Danziger knew things he shouldn't know. He had thought that the incident with Uly was an isolated one. But after that he noticed how more and more he was having flashes of memories that weren't his. How he made decisions that were based on two opinions coming out of his one mind.

It was the Devon Game, but suddenly it was feeling more and more real. Maybe he _was_ going crazy. It would sure be easy to explain everything away. He muttered to himself.

Alonzo caught it and lifted a brow, a small smile on his face. Julia looked at him questioningly. "What did he say?"

Alonzo looked at John who had stopped pacing just long enough to give Alonzo a leveling look. Alonzo didn't budge. He turned to Julia and repeated Danziger's words, loudly, clearly. "He said that if she wasn't here right now then why the hell was she arguing with him."

Her sharp gaze immediately went to John's face. "You feel like Devon's here arguing with you, John?" Her arm was very still where it was resting on her desktop, her face trying to convey an innocence to her question, but John heard the doubt.

He turned around to face the wall, and she and Alonzo both heard a weary sigh. When he turned back around he just looked tired. "Yeah, I mean no. I mean, I know she's not here. And she's not…arguing with me. Just, while I've been sitting here explaining to you everything that's going on, I've been getting this nagging feeling that I'm not saying things the right way. Like this part of me keeps saying that if Devon were here, she would say this differently, or do that differently. Sometimes the feeling is just there, but sometimes, like now" he scowled, "it's strong. Almost makes me want to start an argument with someone, anyone, so that I shut it up."

Alonzo grinned. "Nagging, huh? Sounds like Devon all right."

Julia ignored that comment and asked the first logical question to come to her mind. "When did this…feeling…start?" Danziger just looked at her, knowing what she would say if he told her it's been ever since Devon was put into cryo-sleep. Seeing Danziger's intent on silence, Julia shrugged and tried a different tactic.

"Okay, well, let's say that somehow Devon is finding a way to…influence the decisions you make, or the things you think, and that somehow you are sharing memories with her. How do you think that could be, since she's in cryo-sleep and neurologically unaware?"

Alonzo glared at her for the disbelief that came through her voice so strongly, and she threw up her hands. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I know it sounds like I don't believe you, John. I do. I just don't understand it any better than you do, and I'm trying to make sense of it, that's all."

Danziger finally sat down. He put his head in his hands. He was going to tell them. He had not planned on saying anything to them about this. But the pesky "feeling" that was inhabiting the forefront of his brain as of late was putting the images strongly into the center of his mind. Better to go along with it, he supposed. It could be his _own_ subconscious giving him hints. It didn't necessarily have to be the mind of a woman who was miles away and completely unconscious.

"I had a dream," he stated flatly. Alonzo exchanged another look with Julia, and Julia elbowed him in the ribcage before Danziger looked up. "The night she collapsed, the first time. She had asked me that night to promise to look after Uly and keep the group together and stuff. I'd thought it was strange, but I remember doing a similar thing when I thought I might die and leave behind a child with no family and no home. So I promised. But then I had a dream later that night where she asked me the same thing. Kept harping on about promises. I thought later that it was just because of what she'd said earlier, kinda weighing on my mind."

He paused to think. The little not-really-voice in his head didn't agree that the dream was just a product of his worried brain. He absently raised his hand to rub the side of his head. "It was very real. She'd been dying in the dream. Fading as I watched. When I woke up and remembered it, I was afraid that it had been real. That somehow she had died while she slept, but not before she made me promise."

The memory was vivid. It had been blurry that first day. But every day after when he called it back, it became clearer and clearer. He could see her fears etched on her face. He could feel her again as she clung to his arms and got weaker and weaker. He could hear her voice rasping at him to say the words. What words? The promises, he guessed. The scene flashed in his mind again where she asked the Terrians if they had heard his promise.

He frowned, concentrating, trying to understand what the Terrians had done. Alonzo and Julia saw this and called him back to the present.

"So you think that maybe the dream was on the Dreamplane?" Alonzo asked. "Most people don't think their dreams have real-life significance. But Dreamplane dreams, we know those can be very real."

Danziger nodded. "Well, I don't have much experience on the Dreamplane. It was all kinda hard to focus on, anyway. But I saw Terrians there, and that really sorta tipped me off."

"Terrians?" Julia asked, sitting up straighter. Terrians with Devon the night before she had a total system collapse could be very significant. Elizabeth had told Devon, while others listened, that the planet was going to reject them. She had kept her eyes on Devon, and the image had haunted Julia for many nights, as if Elizabeth was delivering a warning. If only Julia had known ahead of time that Devon was suffering from something unrelated to the illnesses of the others, maybe she could have found something to stop the planet's rejection. Maybe she could have struck a deal with Terrians.

Maybe that's what Devon did. Alonzo had obviously reached a similar conclusion, since he demanded a full accounting from Danziger.

So John started from the beginning. Said how he'd been called from sleep, and arrived in the dream to have Adair yelling at him for not listening to her. But then she turned desperate to have him promise things.

"What things, exactly?" Julia asked.

Danziger thought about it, trying to explain something he wasn't entirely sure of. "It was hard to hear her. She was weak and sorta fading in and out. She mentioned the kids, and Eden Advance, and New Pacifica."

Alonzo digested this and said, "Yeah, but those were things that you'd already promised her."

"I know, I know. I thought so, too." He waved his hand in the air, dismissing that idea. "But then she went on to something else that didn't make any sense. She kept saying something about taking her." He didn't have to look at Alonzo to hear the humor in his voice when he asked, "Take her? You dreamed she told you take her, and you think that didn't make any sense?"

John just scowled. "Give it a rest, Solace."

Julia decided it was up to her to ask the obvious question. "Take her where? To New Pacifica?"

"I don't know. I thought maybe that was what she meant. I said of _course_ we were going to take her. I didn't know at the time that she was going to be so sick, or that we'd have to leave her behind in a cryo-pod. I just thought that if we were well enough to move on, she'd be with us. But she made like that wasn't going to happen. Said the Terrians had to cure her or something, but I still had to take her."

"Wait," Julia interrupted John's story. "She said the Terrians were going to cure her? Why would they cure her, and not the rest of us? For that matter, why would the rest of us be able to move on without a cure, and she had to wait?"

Alonzo answered, moving to her side while he thought it out. "She obviously knew that she didn't have a biostat chip, Julia. When she figured that out, she figured out that if the rest of us made it out of here, she'd still have to deal with whatever it was that was making her sick."

Julia followed his line of thinking. "So she makes a deal with the Terrians?" She frowned. That didn't sound like Devon. To do something like that without telling the group, knowing how important it could be to them and to her son. Especially if she wanted the group to move on without her.

John didn't think that was how it went. "I think the Terrians caused it. She kept saying how her time was short. It was like she knew she only had a day or so, and how would she know that unless someone told her? How would THEY know that unless they had something to do with it?"

Alonzo protested. "Hey, that's jumping to conclusions. They were there, okay, in this dream that we think happened on the Dreamplane. But they could have been there to help her, just as much as to stop her. Was there anything else that happened in the dream? Did you promise to" his mouth twitched, avoiding a smile, "take her?"

John grimaced, sensing a long-running joke in the making. "I promised her whatever she wanted, whatever she needed. She was falling over, and while I was holding her up I could feel her just collapsing. I was worried. I promised. And then she looked over at the Terrians and asked if they had heard, and if it was enough."

As always, Julia's mind was carefully piecing together details. "If they had heard what?"

"I dunno. My promise, I think. It's the only thing we were talking about."

"Well then," she began slowly, "what would it have to be enough for?"

Alonzo considered it. "The Terrians don't deal much with deception. So if someone says they'll do something, there's no two ways about it. But they are also careful to make sure that the person really says they'll do it. When Devon made her promise to the Terrians, she never got any specifics. But she said she'd do anything, and they held it to her. I think John just made a promise without specifics. He said whatever she wanted, whatever she needed. The Terrians obviously took that as consent to something."

"The flash of light." John remembered. "There was a flash of light. She was dying, I felt it, and I turned to yell at the Terrians. They raised their staffs, and I always thought it was because of my anger. But then I got hit by this bright light, and…nothing happened. I went back to sleep. I didn't wake up until morning, and barely remembered anything right away. Maybe they did something with that flash of light."

"Like link you together?" Julia asked.

Alonzo brightened. "Hey, maybe that has something to do with why you fainted that day we put Devon into that pod."

John answered the jab dutifully, "I did not faint, Solace. I don't faint."

Julia wisely didn't comment on this, and turned to Alonzo and asked him, "Have you been in contact with any Terrians recently?"

Alonzo shook his head. "Ever since they had found Bennett and Anson, the Terrians hadn't really made themselves known. "But I could try to reach them. Ask them if they know what's going on. We'll figure it out, Danziger. Don't worry, I don't think you're in any danger or anything."

John just muttered something. Again Alonzo caught it and relayed it to Julia, just to annoy Danziger. It was fun having something to tease him with every once in a while. Danziger was just so serious and busy all the time. "He said some people would think slowly being driven insane by Adair _was_ dangerous."

On his way out, he playfully punched John in the shoulder. "Women, they make you insane. But sometimes it's worth it."

John scowled at his retreating form. And Julia tried not to smile. At the risk of having him scowl at her, too, she ventured to ask, "You miss her a lot?"

John sighed. "I am not making this up, Julia. This is not some psychological way of dealing with grief."

Julia got up from her seat and began to bustle around the tent. There were things she needed to clean up before the day ended. "I'm not saying that." She carefully stacked some of her slides, and set them aside for her to examine early tomorrow before they moved out. This talk had cut into some of the time she'd had planed on cataloguing the vegetation in the area. "I miss her, too. She was the heart of this group. It's harder to move forward without her. You're doing a great job, John."

"But I'm not Devon" he concluded.

Julia carefully didn't look at him as she put away her Diaglove. "Well, we'll see what the Terrians have to say, and then decide that."

She heard him stomp out of the tent, and permitted herself a quiet laugh. She knew why Lonz was having fun teasing him. No one did it anymore. As if being the leader of this group meant that he was outside the realm of jokes. Or maybe they were just trying to respect his responsibility, or his grief.

If somehow John had a connection to Devon that was assisted by the Terrians, then she didn't see how it could be a negative thing. Devon was smart and she had been planning this expedition for years. Her loss had been a hard one, and to have some part of her available to consult was more than they could hope for.

It might drive Danziger crazy for a little while, but only until he understood that it meant there was still hope for Devon to get out of that cryo-pod.


	2. With the Coming Of Spring

Promises Kept.

(AN: I have invented my own calendar, so I will explain it before we go any further. Year 1 begins the spring after the Colony ship lands--the establishment of New Pacifica as a Colony. This is 26 months after Eden Advance landed, so about two years after the actual first Landing. And though the colony ship landed in the winter, I chose spring as the significant date since I felt it would be more in harmony with the way the Terrians would view the changing of the years and the seasons, in a way that humans could understand and accept. So a year begins anew in the spring. When I say that this chapter begins at the end of the second year, I mean that it is nearly spring, and it is a little over two years after the Colony ship has arrived and therefore about four and a half years since Eden Advance landed. Sounds complicated, I know, but it's not.)

**End of 2nd Year, N.P.**

"On a day like this, you can't help but think of all the sacrifices that were needed to reach this moment. Of all the trials that were endured, and obstacles overcome, by men and women reaching together to make a dream come true. Is it worth it, I wonder? I remember fallen friends, I remember the smell of fear and the taste of despair, and I ask if anything could be worth the price we each had to pay. Then I look in the mirror, and I see a life that could have been. A life where I was blinded by the Council, doing unspeakable things in the name of a government that claims to represent humanity, and yet so often fails to approach what it is to be human. On this foreign soil, I can't help but feel that I have regained a humanity I never knew I lost. What price would I pay now, to keep it? I worry that this is not the end of the pain and anguish as mankind struggles to start a new civilization on an alien planet. I worry that soon I shall ask myself again if the price was worth the product. But on a day like this, well, you also can't help but think that Spring is just around the corner, and with the new year comes untold possibilities."

--_from the private journal of Governor Julia Solace_

All the hospital beds were empty except for two. That alone was a very good reason to rejoice. The first few years had been hard, but the fresh air and the healthy work did much to promote quick recoveries and to build up the resistance of the station-born settlers. The few daily cases of injuries were often minor in nature and endured with rueful grins and a positive attitude. Even the Syndrome children, those that had survived the cold sleep journey, were doing much better away from the sterility of the stations and did not require so much professional attention. While many were still viewed as critically sick, there was the chance now that many would survive to adulthood—a chance that hadn't existed on the stations.

Julia nervously paced up and down between the two occupied beds, keeping one eye on the screens that monitored the life signs of the two inhabitants. Her stride was awkward and she made slow, ungainly progress, finally depositing herself into a chair placed near the foot of the beds. She shifted repeatedly, trying to find a way to position her bulk that offered the most comfort. She had been assured, laughingly, by many mothers that the situation only got worse, and more uncomfortable. Two more months was feeling like forever, where the past seven had gone by so fast. In her mind's eye she was still slim and attractive and the glow of impending motherhood didn't do much to offset the fact that she could no longer fit all of her body in the mirror behind her bathroom door.

A glance at the clock told her only 10 minutes had passed since she began her vigil. Life signs were all normal, no reason for concern. As the Governor of this budding Colony, population approximately 1000, she didn't have many medical patients. No one could deny that her experience here on G889 made her the leading expert on the treatment of injuries and illnesses in this new environment. But she couldn't possibly find the time of day to treat everyone and govern them at the same time. Right now she divided up her time between office duties, and research in the biological field. Dr. Vasquez served as the Head Physician, often pioneering new ideas and techniques with Julia's consultation.

There were occasions, though, when Julia insisted on being the physician in charge of treatment. This was one of those occasions, although the patients in the beds did not actually need any treatment. In fact, they both believed the monitoring was excessively unnecessary. But Julia worried, and Julia wanted the monitoring, and Julia was in charge. They had learned early on that it was far easier to agree to the preventive measures, than to argue with Governor Julia Solace. The fact that nothing remotely dangerous or harmful had ever occurred during the previous experiences didn't cause Julia to budge an inch in her demand for monitored incidents.

She rarely worried this much, though. Perhaps it was the new hormones being released in her body, or perhaps it was the uneasy feeling that something could go very wrong now that they were so close to the answers they sought. Today had the potential for great significance. Whether the impact was positive or negative remained to be seen. She would know soon, though, once the two dreamers returned from their trip.

Julia shifted yet again in her chair, trying not to get too distracted by her thoughts. She wished fervently, not for the first time, that it hadn't been Alonzo who was so instrumental in establishing contact and friendly relations with the enigmatic Terrians. He had never come to real harm from the association and had done much good, but still Julia felt uneasy when having any dealings with the earth-swimmers. She couldn't forget that they were a key part of a planet that still threatened to reject all its human settlers.

There was a room in the back of the hospital in which cryopods were maintained, for extreme situations that required more time than available to diagnose and cure. Only one was occupied, and it had been occupied before the cryopods had been transferred to the room. In fact, before the room had been built, before even the ground had been broken for the foundation of the hospital. It served as a reminder to Julia that the unknowable could descend at any moment, and that pain and heartache could still be the end of this course that they took.

She was not suspicious of the Terrians' motives. But she felt she had sufficient reason for healthy precautions.

The quiet beeping of the monitors changed slowly to a faster frequency. Julia lifted herself out of her chair, and lumbered up to the nearest bed. Softly, she reached over the patient to brush a heavy lock of dark brown hair out of eyes that were just fluttering open. Tenderness swelled in her heart as he focused on her and smiled.

"Hey, beautiful." He grinned, and reached up a hand to cover hers—a sure sign of a successful visit with the Terrians. "Have we got news for you! Good news. Great news. News to celebrate life by!"

Julia didn't say anything, but she smiled and shook her head fondly, turning to face the person in the other bed who was also waking up quickly. The monitors were beeping steadily, increasing as the patient regained consciousness. Her eye for details noted that his pants were worn at the knees and a tad bit too short, and his shoes were laced hastily. But he looked healthy and happy, and she fondly ruffled his shaggy hair. "Hi there, kid. Everything okay? How are you feeling?"

He gave her a tolerant look and his eyes went pointedly to the monitor screens beside his bed, which were beeping the all-clear. She grinned, knowing how much he hated to have to hook up for his Dream Plane adventures. She also knew that he went on the Dream Plane regularly without the monitors, much as Alonzo did. There was no way Julia could control that, so she only insisted on the monitors on official business. After all, it was only when trying to represent all of humankind that the Terrians became difficult to deal with. Alone, Uly and Alonzo were as safe with the Terrians as they could be anywhere else on the planet.

Ulysses Adair swung his legs over the side of the bed, clearly in a buoyant mood. Curious, Julia turned back to Alonzo, and nearly stumbled backwards as he caught her up in a fervent hug. One of his hands slipped down to caress her belly fondly, and then he kissed her soundly on the mouth.

"Wow," Julia laughed. "I gather it all went well." She looked from one to the other, and saw excitement brimming. "Should I call the whole town together? How good is it?"

Alonzo exchanged looks with Uly. "It's good. But it'll take some explaining. Maybe we should keep the group small first."

"The Terrians are willing to accept humans on G889 on a permanent basis," Uly blurted out. At Julia's gasp of surprise, Uly added, "Well, there are still some details to work out. But at least at New Pacifica the Terrians have seen that we can live in harmony with the Mother, and they've lifted the restrictions on us."

Julia's hand went to her mouth, surprised. For years they had worked to build a Colony that was self-sufficient and environmentally sound, according to the Terrians' dictates. Many times they had had to reorganize or rethink the plans for the town. It had been tough getting the other colonists to accept that they couldn't do whatever they pleased, but for the time being, the leadership of Eden Advance was more than enough to guide the other settlers in the directions they needed to go.

Most of the other settlers didn't realize the danger they were in, should the Terrians and thus the planet, succeed in rejecting the human visitors. Rejection by the planet resulted in a complete system breakdown that ended rapidly in death. A means, perhaps, of protecting itself from harmful intruders. That information was restricted to a very select few, most of whom were members of the original landing party, or members of the biological teams studying adaptation on G889. The threat of rejection and of death constantly loomed in the back of Julia's mind, now that the more immediate dangers of survival in the wild were ended with the end of the westward trek across the continent. With the beginnings of life stirring in her womb, the hopeful news was all the more important.

She turned to Alonzo, afraid to believe the words, and the implications, and he just grinned and hugged her again, lifting her off her feet. "Alonzo, this means…" she couldn't finish. He touched his forehead to hers, and said, "I know."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"This is great news!" Bess beamed. She was standing behind Morgan, pouring more of the juice-root concoction she'd invented. Having finished going around the small table, she took her seat between Morgan and True, and set the glass pitcher in the middle of the table. It was after hours at a small restaurant called the Wildflower. Homey and always full of pleasant fragrances and good friends, the Wildflower was like a second home to most of the Eden Advance group. It helped that Bess usually served the former EA crew for free. Morgan only gave them 50 off, but it was worth it for the chance to sit around and gab with your friends and relax at the end of the day.

Morgan, of course, had been all for starting a business and making personal profit. But it was Bess' idea to have a small place where they could use local fruits and plants to spice up the everyday boring fare that the colonists were eating those first few months. The Terrians didn't take kindly to ground being cleared for large crops, so inventive ways had to be found to grow and obtain the nutrients that they needed. Until that had happened, the Wildflower was extremely popular whenever you wanted to get away from the semolina bars.

Now, it was mostly the favorite haunt of some loyal customers. And it was often the location of private unofficial meetings like the one occurring right then.

"The Terrians still feel that humans are a possible threat to the well-being of the planet," Alonzo emphasized, looking at Uly for confirmation. "But over the last few years they've seen that New Pacifica is a town that honors the Mother, and all her Children. So as long as we keep adhering to the rules we've set up, the Terrians are going to allow us more unrestricted movement." He added, "Until further notice that is."

"They trust us more now," Uly explained. His face, as always, was open and honest. While everyone was changed, somehow, through contact with the Terrians, Uly was the only one who had changed on the molecular level. He had a special bond with them, and though he was very young, he had the formidable task of reconciling the two species. "Alonzo and I spend a lot of time explaining human concepts to them, and they agree that we don't act the same as the penal colonists that had arrived before us. They don't understand it, but they have accepted it for now."

Morgan, leaning over his now-empty plate, voiced the question on everyone's mind. "Does this mean that we're safe now?" Receiving no fast answer, he continued, "How do we know what 'more unrestricted movement' is? Maybe there's no difference, and they just want us to feel that we don't have to keep our guard up anymore, and then—" Bess lightly tapped his shoulder, slightly embarrassed over her husband's less than jovial response to good news. "I'm just saying, Bess."

One by one, the eyes looked in Julia's direction. At this table, among these people, Julia knew that they didn't look at her for an answer because on her office door was a small plaque with the word "Governor" on it. They remembered long, tiring days, and many, many near-fatal discoveries or experiences. Everyone had a job, everyone had a position. John's job was to say when to move. Julia's was to say when it was safe to do so. They looked at her because they trusted her.

She never forgot the price that trust had been. She never abused it. "No, it's not completely safe for us now." She was honest. "I wish it was. I have a very strong hope that we are closer now to a safe adjustment to this world than we have ever been. But many things can happen. It may be years before any of us can say that we are completely safe."

Catching the beginning of Uly's frown, Julia quickly continued on, "But Bess is right that this is certainly great news. Exploration can continue now, through the spider caves, up the Morgan River." There was a playful groan from the general direction of those with the surname of either Danziger or Adair, who had been adamantly opposed to the naming of the River. "And more than that, the Terrians…well, they have agreed…." Julia couldn't find the right words to explain what came next. She looked at Alonzo for help.

He put one hand on her shoulder, rubbing her back slowly, and looked at Uly who was looking down at his empty plate, seeming fidgety while holding perfectly still. "Accepting humankind on a more permanent basis means that the Terrians will prevent the planet from rejecting our physical presence."

There was silence while this comment was digested by those present. "What's that mean, exactly?" Danziger's voice rumbled from the far end of the table, speaking for the first time since the news was relayed.

Uly answered quietly. "It means that we _are_ safe, in a manner of speaking. We still have to deal with the Terrians and the penal colonists and the grendlers and the kobas and even the Council if they make themselves known again."

Someone in the direction of the Martins murmured, "You call that safe?" There was a brief knocking sound under the table, before Uly continued.

"But at least we won't have to worry about the planet making us sick." He looked like he was going to say more, but he abruptly stopped and occupied himself with placing his empty cup and his utensils onto his plate.

Julia elaborated for him, gripping Alonzo's hand under the table. "In the same way she heals herself, and all her children, she will heal those who allow themselves to be taken into the earth." She paused, hesitating, a detached part of her mind commenting that pauses could be very dramatic. "The Terrians say that the Mother will undo the harm which has been caused through her."

Morgan snorted. "Well, that's rather cryptic, don't you think? It all depends on who's defining harm, and who's defining cause. And for that matter, who's defining the undoing?"

"Devon." The answer came from Danziger, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed, eyes unreadable. He sat, considering Julia and Alonzo, and finally his gaze rested on Uly. The young man met his stare for just a few moments, before turning back to his plate.

Beside the two, True sat, quietly. She knew that the only reason she was invited to these meetings with the Solaces and the Martins was because her dad was an important unofficial leader on New Pacifica, and Uly was "the Link." At first, she'd voiced her opinion on just about everything. But she was growing up now. She was nearly fifteen, and she'd learned that when important things were being discussed, her words had more weight when she waited to say them.

She saw the look that passed between her father and Uly. She couldn't read it, but she came as close as anyone could. She kept her counsel to herself, but sensed even more important to news.

"Devon?" Morgan asked, confused. "Why would Devon be defining anything?" He conveniently remembered Danziger's inexplicable connection to the thoughts and memories of Devon Adair. "Oh, does…she have anything to say here?" he offered, afraid for a moment that he'd upset the scruffy mechanic by mentioning their former leader. He waited for the glower that never arrived.

Julia was the one to confirm Danziger's guess. Her smile was brilliant, her eyes suspiciously bright as she nodded. She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't. And if she did, she could blame it on the hormones. Then Uly looked up at her, and she couldn't help herself. _Devon's going to be so proud of him_, she thought, and wiped futilely at the big drops that had begun to roll down her cheeks. Alonzo laughed softly, not immune to emotion himself, and wrapped Julia in a warm embrace.

The light clicked on in True's head. Her determination not to blurt things out was momentarily forgotten. "Devon's coming back!" she shouted exuberantly, and she exploded from her chair, throwing her arms around Uly, who grinned, accepting the hug and the sentiment, and trying not to get knocked out of the chair.

Bess jumped up immediately, her hand going to her mouth, "Devon!" A glance at Julia confirmed it, and she tugged at Morgan's shirt, "Morgan, did you hear?" she yelled. Her eyes welled up, and she hugged True who had just disengaged herself from Uly and looked ready to launch another hug.

The two giggled, happy and giddy, and then True turned and threw herself onto her dad's lap, laughing, and saying, "She's going to be okay, dad!" He didn't say anything, he just wrapped his arms around his baby girl and held her tight for a moment.

Bess, wiping at her eyes, decided it was time for a celebration. "And I have just the thing!" She raced off to the kitchen, leaving Morgan looking a bit dazed. "The Terrians are going to cure Devon?" he asked.

Julia nodded, happily, still afraid to believe it herself. Alonzo replied for her, "We still don't know how it works, but Uly tells us they've promised to reverse the total system collapse. They can trust us now, so they will restore Devon to us."

"Well how about that," was all Morgan could think to say. True laughed and decided he needed a hug, and after a moment, Morgan laughed at himself, too. Bess came back with a pie, freshly baked, and a half a dozen forks. "I was waiting till Spring to unveil these, but it seems that we have an even better reason to celebrate now. My grandmother used to say that in the old days, you celebrated all the good events and all the bad events with some good food." She began passing out the forks.

"Will she be here for Spring, Uly?" True asked. Spring was the day after tomorrow. But the Terrians worked fast, she knew, and it wasn't unreasonable to ask.

Uly answered around a mouth full of pie. "They said Spring morning. We'll have to release her from her pod and stuff, and set her on the earth. They didn't say how long it would take after that, but it didn't seem like it would take very long."

Julia looked up. "Spring morning? That's in—" she glanced up at the clock, "about 35 hours!" She thought of all the things she needed to accomplish before they could be ready to deal with Devon's illness, and the laughter and the smell of pie faded beneath the onslaught of sudden fervent thought. She felt a hand touch her arm, and her attention snapped back to see Uly grinning at her.

"The Terrians say they'll handle everything. We just need to take her outside and lay her on the ground." Julia looked at Alonzo, who affirmed Uly's remark. So she just nodded.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The others were inside, chattering, reminiscing about the journey from the Landing site to New Pacifica, obviously in high spirits. John had needed some quiet for a few minutes. He was outside, breathing in the fresh air that blew in off of the ocean. He remembered another night, and another ocean. The sound of surf, the canopy of stars, and an unsettled feeling in his gut that until tonight had been just a memory. The woman who put that feeling there hadn't breathed in nearly four years. And just the thought of her was twisting his stomach into knots.

His head was still spinning. Some mornings when he woke up, he was sure that it would be the day everything would turn out right. But some nights when he went to bed, he knew, he just _knew_, that there would never be another night with the smell of ocean and the faint scent of her hair on the breeze, and the touch of her just an arm's length away.

Oh, God, it was starting already. He had never been able to put Devon out of his mind. Not with her practically living there. Her thoughts, her memories, emotions…he knew Devon as well as anyone could by the choices she'd made and the experiences she'd had. But when he found himself falling in love with a woman who wasn't even there except when he thought of her, he'd had to find a way to separate her from him.

The rest of the journey to New Pacifica had been full of never-ending adventure. He used Devon's knowledge, and her experience, and he made the hard choices, and didn't regret a single one. And slowly, he got used to the information that came from unexpected internal sources. He got used to the images that popped in his head. And he managed to lock away that empty feeling that invaded him at night when there were no decisions to make, and memories from Devon's past would come floating up, teasing him with fun, or angering him with sadness, or making him ache for a woman that was gone.

It had been hard, but he'd done it. And now he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the bed. When someone spoke her name, there was the normal sense of recognition as of an old friend, and nothing more.

But tonight, hearing the words that promised to restore Devon to him...It was like he couldn't breathe. All the thoughts that had been kept under lock and key came out and smothered him with their intensity.

He sat on a bench, his head in his hands, trying to get a grip on the whirling inside his head, and the jittering in his stomach. He almost didn't hear the slow, hesitant footsteps. A quiet voice called, "Dad?"

John didn't answer. He did sit up, though, and gazed out towards the ocean. He could glimpse it in between two buildings on the other side of the street. He could hear the pounding of the waves clearly in the quiet night. He moved over on the bench to make room.

The figure sat down, quiet and solemn, gazing out across the street as well. Silence reigned for a few minutes.

John decided to ask, now, before anyone else joined them. "What did it cost you?" He closed his eyes, afraid of the answer. Afraid of what it would mean to the woman who would be waking soon.

"Dad," Uly began. But he stopped, and just answered simply, "Nothing I wasn't prepared to give." And John knew the feeling.

-------

(AN: This was such a hard chapter for me to write. I finally just took what I could get, so that we can all move on. Sorry if I didn't get some of the characterizations right. I am open to specific constructive criticisms. I wasn't going to write a very involved science fiction drama, it was just going to be a romance. So let's see if we can get the romance started. Next up: We wake up Devon! Yaayyyyy…bring on the sap…)

Disclaimer: I do not own Earth 2, nor do I own any of the characters that reside on or near it. I don't even own the words "Earth 2." I don't think I own any of these words, actually, although I plan on taking credit for the way they are all arranged. The spaces are mine, too. All mine…


	3. Dawn

Promises Kept

(A/N: Thank you everyone for reading my story, and for the great reviews I'm getting. I like to hear what you all think of where my story is going, so please continue to give me your opinions, constructive criticism, or suggestions. If there's something you really want to see, I might consider throwing it in later on in the story. I've been really busy lately, so I'm sorry this chapter took me twice as long as the last one. But here we go…)

Chapter 2—Dawn

"One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out and stands alone and throws one's head far back and looks up and up and watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown things happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one's heart stands still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun—which has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. One knows it then for a moment or so..."—Frances Burnett (1849-1924), romance and children's writer from Earth 1

**1st day of Year 3, N.P.**

The chilly morning air was causing the breath of the gathered Edenites to appear as puffs of smoke. They stomped their feet a bit to keep warm, more out of habit than necessity. Spring was nearly here, and the need for multiple layers had gradually decreased until one good jacket would be sufficient for an hour or so at the break of day. The sky was just getting streaked with red, but the sun had yet to come over the horizon.

Considering how important Devon Adair was, as the leader and originator of Eden Project, it was almost insulting that there were only a handful of people gathered around the back entrance of the hospital, waiting for whatever Terrian ritual would bring her recovery. Except that John and Julia had decided, with support from the rest of the Advance team, that no one but EA would know about what was going to happen with Devon. To everyone else, Spring Morning would herald the coming of Spring, and nothing more.

There were many reasons for this approach, not the least of which was the possessive attitude of the members of the little band Devon had once led halfway across the continent. Adventure, calamity, hardship, discovery—these things bound the group together like nothing experienced since the Colony ship had landed. Not a one of them could stand the thought of Devon being awakened to crotchety members of the town bureaucracy or fawning parents of Syndrome children or complaints from the less contented members of society.

And, though it wasn't mentioned, except privately between John Danziger and Julia Solace, in the event that something went wrong, and Devon was not, in fact, restored to them, well… at least there would be no one around to view their grief, and perhaps minimize what she had meant to them by generic words of sympathy or pretences of sorrow.

They were all there, gathered around the door, talking to each other in quiet voices. All, of course, except for the ones who were buried progressively along the trail from Landing to New Pacifica. For the gravestones, as well as for Devon, who may still need one before this day was over, the members of Eden Advance came together and waited patiently, trusting once more in the benevolence of the mysterious natives.

A sudden gust of warm air caused an excited murmur to go up. Spring had arrived, as hundreds of clicks away the Spring Runner fulfilled her journey. Bess looked at the sky, thoughtful, as her husband placed a hand on her shoulder. Everyone knew that Bess had wanted to be the one to carry the flower pollen to the Spring Gorge every year. But she had quickly accepted the decision to have a new Runner each spring, because she had understood how important a step it would be towards the colonists' acceptance and appreciation of their new planet.

It wasn't as dangerous as the first time, since New Pacifica had vehicles at their disposal to carry the Runner to the appropriate place at the appropriate time, with more than a few hands to prevent the headlong plunge that the flower pollen induced. It was now as safe a routine as the New Pacificans could make it. And for at least one day, New Pacifica was united in a good feeling towards each other and to their new home.

It was common knowledge that the Spring Runner was strictly unnecessary. After all, Spring was bound to come on its own, as the winter could not last forever. But on this strange planet, all had come to accept that things did indeed occur for a reason. On the very rare occasion that a Runner (often Grendler) did not make it to the Gorge, it was Julia's theory that Spring came, but it came without the intensity that it otherwise would have. Instead of the lush, prolific beauty of G889 in Summer, the planet was almost half-dead until winter arrived again. There was evidence in the land of the occasional "bad year," but no one had yet been able to discern just how often the bad years came.

This year, though, was assuredly no bad year. Spring had come, and the shouts that went out from the main streets of New Pacifica meant that the Runner had checked in and she was fine and headed home. The celebrations would begin. Children would insist on jumping in the ocean, despite the adults' claims that it wasn't warm enough yet to go in. And everyone would be involved in the making or eating of good food. Spring was the first chance to try out the new recipes and ideas that had been brewing all winter.

Hopefully the fact that the Wildflower was still closed wouldn't alert anyone to the event to occur behind the hospital. Bess and Morgan couldn't possibly have abandoned Devon in order to serve a few breakfasts. Although, in point of fact, Morgan did bring up the subject tentatively before his wife gave him a very convincing argument to the contrary.

The sound of a door banging open startled the group momentarily. "Watch that step!" A slightly harried looking Julia rushed out and held the door open for a stretcher being pushed carefully and quickly by Alonzo and John. In her hand was a small hand-held monitor that was relaying Devon's vitals, and she was alternately voicing the vitals and relaying instructions.

They had made it outside, and Devon seemed stable enough, considering that she was on the verge of total collapse. It had been a tricky situation. Devon had to be cycled up from cryosleep, and then transferred outside before her system could crash. She wasn't awake, Julia knew, but her body was no longer frozen. The Terrians had only moments to effect their cure. "We gotta get her on the ground!" She signaled to Danziger, and he and Alonzo lifted Devon up, and gently laid her on the ground, as per the Terrians' instructions.

The morning was silent, with only the low murmur of the celebrations of New Pacifica occurring far in the background. Here in this patch of ground between the rudimentary civilization and nature, there weren't even the sounds of breathing. Julia lowered herself to the floor, still reading the monitor. "C'mon, Devon, keep fighting…stay with us…" Devon lay perfectly still.

"She's so pale," someone whispered. "She looks like she's still in that pod."

Someone else began, "So where are these Terrians, any—" The speaker was cut off by hands that shot out of the ground, and wrapped around Devon. The ground beneath her body was heaving as she was being dragged under. The scene was terrifying, straight out of the childhood nightmares of more than one person.

"Devon!" John yelled, fear gripping him like a clamp on his stomach. On his knees, he dove forward, as if to catch her and bring her back, but he was arrested by Alonzo's arm on one side, and Uly on the other. Together they inched him, struggling, away from the immediate vicinity of Devon's disappearing body.

He was devastated. He didn't trust the Terrians as far as he could throw them. He was willing to let them heal her, but couldn't they have done it here? He knew her best chance of survival was to go with them, but seeing her falling through the dirt was like watching her being buried. He didn't think, he just jumped. If they hurt her…

He growled. Alonzo and Uly were still holding him on both sides, and hearing the growl, their grip tightened just a fraction. The sound of moving earth stopped. And where Devon had laid was a large spot of turned earth, only slightly different in color from the ground surrounding it.

"Dad, she's going to be fine! Dad…dad…" True's voice came from the side, as she came into view on her hands and knees. "Dad, look at me."

He turned. He could never ignore the voice of his little girl. Not when she was a baby and crying, not when she was a child, lost in a large crowd, not even now when emotions he couldn't even understand were swamping his mind. Only one voice could reach him anywhere, and so he turned. And True, who knew him best, saw the fear and the rage and helplessness. She went to him, and just hugged him, feeling his arms come up around her, as Alonzo and Uly let him go. "Dad, it's okay. That's a good sign that the Terrians are going to heal her. Dad…she had to go with them…"

Over her father's head, True locked eyes with Uly. The rest of Eden Advance was startled by the way the Terrians took Devon, and they were surprised at John's actions, but they knew about the "Devon" that inhabited John's mind, and so they carefully looked the other way while he regained control of himself. But True and Uly knew that this wasn't just another one of those "Devon-episodes" that John had. And so, as children do, they worried. Devon had to come back. If she didn't, it wouldn't be like losing one parent, it would be like losing two.

Uly quickly made up his mind. He glanced at Alonzo, who had a clearly disturbed Julia in his arms, and was paying him no attention. He looked back at True, and then he backed away from her and John by just a foot or so, ignoring True's suspicious glower. And then there was the sound of earth moving again as Uly disappeared through the ground just like a Terrian.

"Oh my God, did you see that?" Baines exclaimed. Obviously, everyone had, as there was more, and considerably louder, talk.

John turned and saw the empty spot, an alarmed look on his face. True put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, feeling the tenseness of his body, and answered the group, attempting to put a lighter spin on this disappearance. "What, that? Uly's been able to do that for months, he's just been waiting to show it off."

The first to catch on to True's tone, Magus responded, "Yeah, well, I guess he's just gonna go check on his mom. The show off probably didn't take his gear with him, though." She shook her head at this lapse, and elbowed Cameron who was standing next to her.

He quickly added, "Yeah, wonder who he got that from?" There were a few soft chuckles.

Seeing that John was responding to the comments from the others, but just barely, Bess decided to go a little further to relieve the tension. "Okay, everyone, we don't know how long Devon's going to be, but she couldn't possibly expect us to just stand around here waiting in the cold, on the first day of Spring. How about we go open the Wildflower and we can have some breakfast and wait for word?"

The group looked questioningly at Julia and Alonzo, who both nodded, and then they all whole-heartedly agreed. They walked away slowly, talking softly as they went, the first rays of a warm day lighting them up.

John remained sitting on the ground, and True knelt with him. Alonzo helped Julia to her feet, and then he turned to John. "Hey man, at least you didn't faint. That's something, right?"

There was a moment of silence, and Alonzo thought for a minute that John wasn't going to take the bait.

Then a gruff voice from under the unruly hair grumbled, "I don't faint, Solace." True turned a relieved grin to Alonzo and Julia, as John got up and dusted himself off.

As the four walked toward the Wildflower, John said, "And if you keep bringing it up, Lonz, I might have to kick your ass."

Alonzo just grinned. "Save it for Uly when he gets back from his joyride."

--------

It was mid-morning when Uly called Alonzo on the DreamPlane, and told them all that he and Devon would be returning. The Wildflower closed abruptly with some excuse about being a breakfast-only establishment on the first day of Spring. The members of Eden Advance managed to leave the Wildflower and congregate in a hospital waiting room through various circuitous routes.

They had considered waiting outside, but figured that the dirt patch she disappeared on wasn't necessarily the one she was going to reappear on, and so really, she could pop out just about _anywhere_.

They hadn't been waiting long when they heard voices coming from the hall towards the rear exit where Julia had been waiting.

"Her vitals are all reading stable, and her systems all appear to be functioning properly. You're sure everything went fine? Is she in any danger of relapse?" Julia's voice carried ahead of her before she came into view. Her diaglove was on, and she was walking beside Danziger who had an unconscious, but decidedly less pale Devon in his arms. Behind them walked Uly who looked completely exhausted, but was possibly just tired of Julia asking him the same questions.

"I don't remember everything that happened, Julia. But the Terrians told me that she would be fine in a few days. It's not like when they healed me and I was up right away, but she'll be completely healed." Uly shuffled along, clearly tired, and Alonzo swung an arm around him.

"You did good, kid. Your mom would be real glad to know that you were there with her."

Uly just rolled his eyes. "She'd probably ground me if she found out I was right there with her." They both laughed.

"Yeah," Alonzo agreed. "That sounds about right. But it'll be good to have her back." He turned to the rest of the group who was trying to follow Julia into the room she was settling Devon in. "She's fine, everyone! But she'll probably sleep for the rest of the day. You could all stay, or you could check back later in the afternoon. Just please don't tell anyone else just yet. We'll announce it to the rest of New Pacifica soon."

"Hey," Magus had an idea. "What if one of us stays here on gear, and when Devon wakes up or if there's a change or something, it gets relayed to everyone else." There were a few laughs at that.

"Like old times, right?" Denner joked. She raised her hand high. "I'll stand the first Devon-watch."

Walman volunteered to partner her. "You're supposed to stand watch in pairs, you know."

There were groans and suppressed laughter. Cameron hit him lightly in the shoulder. "You were the only one who had to stand watch with a partner, because otherwise you'd just fall asleep."

"It's the middle of the day?" he protested. "And I didn't _always_ fall asleep."

Bess joined in, grinning. "Didn't you have perimeter watch last week, Walman? And when I came out of the Wildflower late after putting the kitchen in order, what was it you were doing on the bench right outside?"

"Oh, come on!" he groaned.

It was decided that Denner could handle the watch on her own. It wasn't as if they were expecting any danger, and the rest would go out and mingle with the crowds so that no one would suspect anything. Now that Devon appeared to be out of danger, the adventure of the situation added a little spice to the day-to-day routines that were becoming all too familiar.

Alonzo was pleased to see them in good spirits. He made a note to tell Julia all about it, and telling Denner to wait outside the door, he walked into the room that held Devon. Uly was slumped in a chair that sat up against the far wall, looking for all the world like he was going to fall asleep. True stood beside him, torn between dragging the story out of Uly, and hearing what Julia had to say about Devon's condition. John stood by the bed, looking down on Devon's sleeping face, while Julia ran her diagnostics.

"I sent the others away for a bit. Everyone wants to be here, everyone wants to help. But there doesn't seem to be much to do, so I figured they could go out and celebrate Spring. They left Denner here on Devon-Watch, though." Alonzo made his way to Julia, trying to assess her condition without alerting her to the fact that he was a little worried. She was getting closer to her due date, and while she reassured him repeatedly that she was doing just fine, he didn't like her over-extending herself.

Today was obviously a day where certain rules didn't apply. If something had gone wrong, Julia would have pushed herself to the limits, and there would have been nothing Alonzo could do. He was doubly thankful that nothing had yet gone wrong. She looked a little bit tired, which could have been from the early morning preparations, or the hours of waiting at the Wildflower.

But then she looked at him and smiled, and he smiled back at her. "Everything checks out," she said, obviously very pleased. "Lonz, the Terrians did just what they said would. She's a little weak, a little bit underweight and mal-nutritious, but that's all from being sick and being on the road before she went into cryosleep." She pulled off her diaglove, and set it aside, before turning back to the bed and running her hand over Devon's hair.

She looked down at her old friend. As a Council representative, she had not had the experience of friendship. As a member of Eden Project she had had the ups and downs of many a good friendship. But in the time between the two lives, there was Devon. Julia had not quite been able to forgive herself for not finding a cure for Devon's illness. Those first few months she had ran herself ragged testing and retesting theories and searching through volumes of research files. It had not done any good. Even now, Julia had only the vaguest idea of what had really happened to Devon.

But she could make sure now that Devon didn't lack for anything. She looked up at John, standing on the other side of the bed. And she looked at True and Uly waiting patiently by the door. They would all take care of her. She was back, and she was theirs.

Julia turned to her husband, straining to keep the sentiment out of her eyes and her voice. "The patient is doing just fine," she said briskly. "If Denner's on watch, then she can check in on Devon. She'll probably be asleep for a few hours yet. We should all get out and just let her rest."

Alonzo took her arm and moved towards the door, thinking they were all going to leave, but Uly sat up straight just enough to plant his feet, and rather stubbornly said, "I'm going to stay right here till she wakes up."

True scoffed. "And you'll probably fall asleep right there, too. Fat lot of good you'll do that way." He scowled at her, but he just stayed in the chair.

Julia contemplated this, and letting go of Alonzo's hand, she moved to stand in front of Uly. She didn't say anything for a second, but then she asked him something unexpected. "How old were you when your mom went into cryosleep, Uly?"

Caught off-guard, he answered, "Nine, why?"

"Uly, how old are you now?"

He frowned. "Thirteen." It was easy to forget that this boy was just a boy. He acted like an adult and he had very adult responsibilities, but he was still so young. Julia sighed.

"You've grown a lot in 4 years, haven't you?" When Uly just nodded, Julia reached down to touch his hair, long and wavy, and still a bit dirty from the trip through the ground. "Uly, to your mom, it's only been a few hours. It might be…a bit of a shock for her to see you so grown up now."

He shook his head. "She'll know who I am. Mom will always know who I am."

Julia looked at Alonzo, and then at True. True looked stubborn enough to support her friend, so Julia wisely didn't ask for help from that corner. But she decided to just lay things out, and let him decide.

"Of course your mom will always know you, Uly. I'm not saying she wouldn't recognize you instantly. But it may be a bit of a shock for her, if she's not prepared for it. She's missed four years of your life. Four years of her own life. Maybe it would be better if someone told her first that it's been four years, and to expect some changes. This way she has a minute to get used to it before she sees you."

He thought about this. And it made sense. He wanted to be there when his mom woke up. He'd followed her to the Terrians, and she hadn't once woken up while he was there. Not even on the DreamPlane. He missed her a lot, and now she was so close. But he didn't want to scare her, either. He didn't know how he'd feel if he went to sleep and woke up four years later, and everyone had changed.

He set his jaw. "I'm going to stay right here." When Julia sighed, he said, "But when she starts to wake up I'll leave the room for a few minutes so Dad can tell her what's happened."

John looked at them from where he stood staring down at Devon. "What, Uly?"

"You're going to stay, right, Dad?" Uly and True looked at him expectantly. John had no intention of going anywhere else, but he felt uneasy in accepting the responsibility of being there when Devon woke up. He wasn't sure he was ready to face her so soon.

Julia agreed. Alonzo added, "John, you haven't changed so much in the past 4 years. Well, you might have gotten a little uglier, but she probably won't notice it right away."

Danziger gave them an unreadable look as Julia ushered Alonzo out the door. They heard Denner give a mock salute as they left, and then it was him and Devon and the kids.

True sat down in one of the chairs and beckoned him over. "Sit down, Dad, it might be a while." He took the chair between the two, and put one arm around each of them. True leaned her head against his shoulder, and Uly just leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. And they waited.

-------

(AN: Okay, I lied. I said I would wake up Devon, and I didn't. But she is THIIIISSSS close, really. I had to cut the chapter short because I didn't realize I'd be taking this many words to say things that were like mere sentences in my outline. Which, by the way, is written on the back of a SavOns receipt, I think. I'm sorry if my writing style seems to change a lot, but I just felt myself getting really into a heavier sort of writing and that's not what I wanted this to be. Suggestions are always welcome, so please, if you have something to suggest, please review! I can't help feeling like this story is coming together rather choppily, but if you all keep telling me it's good, I can't find the places I need to fix. All right, next chapter I PROMISE Devon wakes up. Oh, and does anyone know the first names of the rest of the Eden Advance members?)


	4. The End Of Waiting

Chapter 3—The End of Waiting

"Have you ever been so happy and so scared that you were, like, just frozen? It wasn't just that I didn't know what to do, or what to say. I didn't even know what to feel."—a quote from The Authorized Biography of Ulysses Adair

**1st day of Year 3, N.P.**

He must have dozed off. The room was quiet, except for the constant beeping of the monitors on Devon's bed. It was like hearing her heartbeat from all the way across the room. It was the first thing he heard as he opened his eyes groggily. Steady, constant—at least he knew she was still with them.

Danziger looked at the clock on the wall. It had only been two hours. It was just barely past morning. He felt like he'd been awake for two days. But still, he couldn't believe he fell asleep.

Shooting pains from his left arm told him that more than just his mind fell asleep. His daughter lay with her head on his shoulder, and while he was loath to wake her up he really had to move. He had gotten his arm halfway out from under True's head when he heard a change in the beeping sound. Alarmed, he glanced at the monitors, but they showed nothing wrong. No flaring lights, no words flashing on the screens. But he saw that Devon's alpha waves were up. That meant she was waking.

He must have jostled True, because she sat up sleepily and said, "Is something wrong, Dad?"

His mouth was dry, so he didn't answer her at once. And then he just rubbed his shoulder and said, "Other than my arm falling asleep, no, everything's fine, kid. Looks like she might be waking up now."

Danziger had just finished speaking when Uly bolted upright in his chair. "Mom," was all he said. His body moved to stand up and walk over to her, but he paused, and looking at his hands, he seemed unsure of what move to make. Danziger's hand came down on his back, comfortingly, and Uly turned and said, "True and I will go outside. We'll tell Denner to call the others."

To anyone else, the simple comments would have seemed unemotional, too casual for this kind of situation. But Danziger often showed the same trait himself, and he had a strong suspicion his face had the same closely guarded expression that Uly's wore. He hoped Adair didn't blame him for the kid's new bad habits.

When they left the room, John got up and brought a chair over to the side of the bed. He didn't know what he should be doing, if anything, so he just waited. Her eyelids began to flutter, and he felt this swelling inside of his chest that he clamped down brutally.

He was scared out of his mind. His body was tensed and ready to bolt as soon as he let up on his self-control. One part of him laughed at his reaction, but it was a small part, and obviously in the minority. He blamed it on the Devon-part. A thousand thoughts ran through his head, and he quickly decided the words he would say. He would just welcome her back to the land of the living, tell her how many years had passed, and then call in her son.

Adair was the type of woman who was tough as nails, chewed up steel for breakfast, and could nag you to death faster than your mother-in-law. But she was predictable, and she lived for her son. Uly. Who was like his _own_ son. He'd never wanted one, because True had been more than enough. But he hadn't thought it would be this hard to give him back to his mother.

He threw that thought in the pile of Thoughts-To-Come-Back-To-Later-If-I-Feel-Like-It. He added, "You have a good son" into his welcome back speech, and rubbed his palms on his knees. For crying out loud, how long does it take for a person to wake up?

And then she did.

He didn't remember getting up, but when her eyes opened—hazel? green? he couldn't tell, but his speech flew right out of his head—they focused directly on his. She blinked a few times as if she were trying to see more clearly. Her voice was rough and weak sounding, but the first thing she said was, "I…died, and went to…the Quadrant?"

He might have laughed. Probably should have. But he couldn't seem to form any sounds at all. His hand moved up to touch her hair, and he finally just said, "Hey, Adair. Welcome back."

She smiled up at him, the easy smile of the sleepy, and the relief that flooded his veins eased all the tension right out of his body. He had been too afraid to believe that this day would be real. But it was, and she was, and God, he'd know that smile anywhere.

"I feel so peaceful," she said, sounding amused. "I remember being sick. Feeling weak, and sitting down behind the tent…"

He suppressed the urge to snort. Sitting down? Maybe if you normally sit down by falling over. He recalled coming upon her lying on the ground, and the fear that had wrapped him had been the same as the fear today when he'd seen her disappear under the dirt. It was the kind of fear that shaves years off your lifespan.

"…and Julia saying I had to go into the cryopod, till she found a cure." Devon continued. "I didn't feel peaceful then. Strange how I feel peaceful now." She closed her eyes, and was silent for a long moment.

Danziger thought maybe she'd fallen asleep again, but her alpha waves were still high. Then she opened her eyes, and grinned. "We made it, didn't we?"

He nodded, and she sighed. "Is it beautiful? Like the east coast was?"

He nodded again. Her laugh came out breathy and faint. "I probably should be resting. Shouldn't you be telling me not to talk?"

She set him up. He saw it. But he took it because it was better than just nodding. "Long experience tells me it would never work."

"Then why aren't you talking?" she laughed. Devon looked at him. The last traces of sleep had left her eyes, so he knew she was all there when she sharply asked, "Danziger, did something go wrong?"

It was the tone that finally did him in. It was something he recognized. Something he knew how to deal with. Devon lying in the bed like a piece of fragile glass was something he couldn't handle. But Devon accusing him of something going wrong. Now that was something he knew.

So he scowled at her. Not 100 percent Danziger-scowl. Just a little one. She was still sick, after all. "What makes you think something went wrong, Adair? Everything's fine."

But it was too late. He could see the beginning of a panic setting in, and he moved quickly to avert it. With his hand he stroked back hair from her face, and he said as clearly as possible, "Devon, everything's fine. Really."

She didn't seem to hear him. "Where's my son?" she asked. "I want to see Uly." She strained to get out of the bed, and John pushed her back down.

"Whoa, Adair. You're not ready to get up, yet. He's waiting right outside, I'll get him in a minute."

"I want to see him _now_," she demanded. Bossy little thing. Four years ago he would have attributed it to her upbringing as an Adair. But he knew better now. He'd lived with her emotions in his head for four years. It was fear he could see in her eyes, and fear that was making her voice edgy.

"Just a minute, Adair!" he raised his voice. "I said everything's fine, and I mean that everything's fine. Don't get yourself worked up, or Julia will have my head."

Abruptly the energy drained from her, and her head fell back on the pillow. "John, I want to see my son." Her voice was so low he could barely hear her, and she looked so tired. She was back to the frail Devon again. He hated it. He felt so helpless.

He took her hand in his and said, "I know, Devon. I swear, he's right outside. He wouldn't leave your side all morning."

She looked like she was believing him. But the hand that he held was still gripping his hard. She wouldn't truly believe until she saw for herself.

He hesitated before continuing. His little speech came to his mind, but he couldn't possibly say words so cold and unfeeling. "You know," he began, "I practically had to drag him outside to wait while you woke up." He lied, but he'd make it up later. He wasn't good at broaching the real sensitive issues. "He's getting kinda big now, he might have been able to take me."

She understood. He saw it in her eyes. Would he be able to see everything now? It was like he could read every expression, and all the words she wasn't saying.

Devon let go of his hand, and looked up at the ceiling. She closed her eyes briefly, and asked in a very calm voice, "How long has it been?"

He hung his head, to look at the floor, trying to find a way to lessen the impact. "Colony ship's been and gone."

She repeated, "John. How long?"

He didn't hesitate this time. Just gave it to her straight. "Four years, Devon. It's the first day of Spring. Four times from the last one you remember."

She didn't say anything. He knew she heard him. But he gave her a few moments, and looked out the door. He saw Julia waiting there, and he shook his head so she would know not to come in yet.

When he turned back to her, he saw a suspicious brightness leaking from her closed eyes. His heart twisted. Damn. He should've known. They should've picked someone else to tell her. Bess, maybe. What was he supposed to do about it?

He sat back down in the chair, and grabbed her hand again, calling to her, "Devon."

"Four years, John," she whispered. "I missed four years of my son's life. I mean, I knew. When you go into cryosleep, you could wake up…twenty-two years in the future. We did that already, I know. But I thought it would only be months. And you looked so much the same, I thought—"

John gave a small laugh, and Devon paused. "Something funny, Danziger?"

He grinned at her, "Glad you think I look the same. Alonzo said I'd gotten uglier. I was getting a little self-conscious."

She just stared at him. And then she laughed. She appreciated it. She was glad it was John here telling her, and not one of the others. She wouldn't have wanted the pity or the sympathy, or the people who held stuff back to protect her. She needed perspective. His hand was warm and strong, and that was what she needed, too.

She felt the tears on her cheek, and turned so they would fall into the pillow. "How is he, really?" she asked him. Straight answers, that's another thing she always knew she could get from John.

He stopped grinning, and just looked at her solemnly. "You've got a good kid, Adair. He's growing tall and straight. Good heart and a good head on him. He does you proud every day."

She smiled. "Can I see him now? Please?"

He nodded. "Just a minute, though." He reached over to grab an edge of her thin blanket, and he dabbed at the edges of her eyes, and let the tears soak into it. "Can't have you looking all sad and sick now, Adair. Scare the boy right out of his wits." He let go of the blanket, and used his thumb to rub the last wetness from her cheek.

She reached up to grab his hand, and he felt his heart thud just a little too hard. "Thank you," was all she said. And he knew she didn't mean the blanket.

He nodded, and patted her hand as he walked out. Uly rushed in before John could even say anything, calling "Mom"ahead of him, just like he used to when he was a kid. Danziger couldn't make out the words, but he heard Devon mumbling things, and she sounded happy. So he must have handled that okay.

Julia followed quickly behind Uly, and Danziger heard her apologizing for interrupting, she just had to check a few things. He heard Devon's surprised voice go, "Julia, are you pregnant?"

Whoops. Guess he forgot to mention that part. True was still waiting outside with the other Edenites, and she laughed at his guilty look. "It's okay, Dad, she really couldn't be THAT surprised."

He pulled his girl into his arms. She was the same height as Uly, despite the two years difference. She wasn't going to be as tall as her father, but for a father she was still too big. He would have hated to miss four years. He told himself he'd come back and tell Devon every Uly story he had.

"I'm gonna go outside for a bit, sweetheart." He let her go, and she said she was going to stay and wait until it was everyone else's turn to say hi. She tilted her head to one side and asked, "Are you okay, dad?"

"Yeah, True-Girl, it's just been a long day. I'll be right outside." He stepped outside the hospital doors, and sat on a bench. There were benches everywhere in New Pacifica. All the useless pieces of leftover equipment or plastic or building materials all went to making benches. John liked it. It always gave him a place to sit, which gave him time to think. He had a feeling he was going to be doing a lot of sitting.

---------------------------

Julia had just a few more slides to go over, and then she would be out of there. She was surprised Alonzo hadn't arrived yet to retrieve her. She didn't have a good excuse to be in here running and rerunning Devon's tests on the first day of Spring, so she was hoping to have everything put away before he came back.

It had been a long day. Not that she'd really had to do much. Really, the Terrians had done all the work. But emotions were running high and stress, even the good kind, could wear on a body. Especially one that's tired of carrying around another little body all day.

Julia shifted on her feet. She didn't have to look down to know that they were red and a little swollen. In fact, if she'd looked down, she wouldn't have been able to see around her stomach, anyway, so it was really a better idea if she ignored it. She would get something for the swelling before she left.

Right now, she had to put away her equipment. Devon's tests all came out fine. There wasn't anything wrong with her. With a normal patient, she'd let them out and about in maybe two days. But this was Devon, and she wasn't taking chances, even though she knew she'd have a fight on her hands. But all of her organs showed evidence of the ordeal she'd just been through, and Julia couldn't take the chance that they were too weak to take the strain of everyday normal life.

For now, she'd just have to sleep in the hospital, and everyone could visit her there. She smiled as she thought of the members of EA that had come to see Devon all day. She hadn't been alone for a minute. Julia was tempted to run everyone out, and let Devon rest, but Devon wouldn't hear of it. And she didn't seem tired in the least, so Julia let them stay.

She'd practically had to sedate Uly to pry him from her bedside when visiting hours were over. She thought about locking the window, so he couldn't sneak in later, but he seemed pretty tired. If he went home and went to sleep, he'd probably be out for a full 8 hours, and that would take care of that problem.

All the monitors in the hospital were working properly, so if there were any changes, she and Dr. Vasquez would be notified immediately. Julia had had to inform Dr. Vasquez of Devon's return and he had agreed not to tell anyone until the announcement the next day. He went to see her for a few minutes, and later told Julia that she seemed to be recovering fast, and he didn't see any need for a night staff.

So Devon would be alone, but the phones were in working order, and Julia was just a few yards away. With a population of only 1000 or so people, there was no need to maintain a night staff, and sometimes not even a full day staff. They just left the main doors unlocked, and besides, anyone who needed help went directly to Dr. Vasquez or Dr. Solace, wherever they happened to be.

Julia didn't jump when the door behind her opened. She knew who it was, and she turned and held up her hands, "All done!"

Alonzo laughed at her, and took one of her hands, looking around at the clean workspace. "If I didn't know better, it looks like you were just hanging out here resting your feet."

She grinned up at him. "Right on the first try! You ready to go?"

"Solace, you are a bad liar." He looked down at her feet. "If you were resting, then why are they red and puf—tired looking?"

She ignored him, and pulled him to the door. Outside in the hallway, they passed Devon's room, and the lights and the monitors told Julia that Devon was sleeping soundly. So they moved on, and entered the lobby, and found John sitting on a chair in the semi-darkness of the hospital night-lights.

"John," Julia began, "visiting hours ended two hours ago."

He looked at them both, and raised an eyebrow, "Do I look like I'm visiting with anyone?"

Sensing an unknown depth here, Julia tried a different angle. "I was working a bit late, but I'm closing up and Alonzo's taking me home now. Would you like to come over for some tea?"

He just shook his head and pulled himself out of the chair. "Nah, I think I'll just head home. Check on the kids. It's been a long day."

Alonzo looked at the hallway they'd just come through, and then he looked back at John. "Hey Danziger, I'm gonna point Dr. Solace here in the opposite direction and distract her for a bit. Why don't you run in and tell Devon we all said goodnight?"

Julia made a sound like she was going to protest, but a squeeze from Alonzo had her closing her mouth again. John didn't move, and Alonzo shuffled Julia along away from the hallway. "Moving a little slowly tonight, aren't you, honey?"

"Hey, you big bully, I'm pregnant!" she complained, trying to keep from being rushed. She turned to look back at John, but he wasn't standing there anymore. "Well," she said, resigned, "he knows how to close up. I just hope he doesn't wake her up."

"Why not? Could be good for both of them," was all Alonzo said.

---------------------------

John stood in the darkened doorway. There was just enough light for him to see that she was asleep. Of course she was asleep. He knew she would be. Half the town was probably asleep tonight, having been up since dawn, and half the town wasn't recovering from near-death.

But he had wanted to see her before he left. He could have gone in any time. He could have snuck past Julia while she worked, but he didn't even have to do that. He was one of a handful of people that had keys and codes to everywhere in New Pacifica.

He just couldn't bring himself to get up from that chair. What would he say to her? There were so many things he wanted to say, but he didn't have the words.

And even if he had the words, he wasn't sure he had the guts. He sighed, and ran his hand through his hair. Tomorrow. There was enough time to talk about stuff tomorrow. There were a lot of tomorrows now.

"Goodnight, Devon," he said softly. "I'll see you in the morning."

-------

Disclaimer: Even though I sometimes forget to put the disclaimer on the chapters, I never forget that I don't own the show Earth 2, or the characters. I hear that they're owned by Universal and Amblin, although I've never actually bothered to check it myself. They're not mine, and I don't get any money, and I'd trade it all anyway for a few more episodes. Not that I'm telling Universal and Amblin their business.

(AN: I know, I know. Two chapters in 24 hours? Well, they were supposed to be just one chapter, so think of it as two half-chapters in 24 hours. Which is just one chapter. So I mean, what's odd about posting one chapter? Don't mess with me, I'm a math major.)


	5. A Little Knowledge

Chapter 4—A Little Knowledge

(AN: Sorry everyone. I've got a million excuses for why this one was taking so long, but none are any good. If you're still reading, thanks. There are many more chapters to go.)

**Day 2, Year 3 N.P.**

Devon woke to the scent of fresh flowers, and the kind of brightness that can never truly be simulated but can only come from real sunshine. She hadn't opened her eyes yet, but already she felt warmth pouring over her, and her body told her it was well past sunrise.

She sat up with a start. Well past sunrise? How could they let her sleep that long? There was a campsite to pack up, supplies to be checked, and twenty klicks to be traveled before sundown…

The room swirled around for a bit, before settling into place. She looked to the window on her left, to see the bright morning light streaming past white billowy curtains. The sunshine had been creeping along the wall for hours until it hit her bed and woke her up.

A hospital bed. She was sleeping in a hospital bed. Because she'd been sick. The events of the day before came back to her, strangely surreal when she thought back to the events of the week before, when they'd lost Eben and Dr. Bennett and Elizabeth…

No, not last week. Four years ago.

Devon lay back on her pillows, her urgency lost. She wasn't late for anything. No one needed her to be anywhere. No one needed her at all. They'd lived for four years without her. She almost couldn't wrap her mind around it.

Yesterday she'd been visited by every one of her friends. They'd told her stories and caught her up on a few things, and told her over and over again how glad they were to have her back. It had been nice to see how much she meant to so many people. But she hadn't been left alone to come to terms with the fact that she'd lost four years of her life.

It wasn't like before when she'd lost 22 years of her life. That time, everyone who mattered to her had been with her.

She had just missed out on four years of the lives of people she truly cared about. People she had promised to keep safe, people who were relying on her. And her son…her baby boy…was almost grown.

She couldn't even begin to think of the thousands of little moments she missed. The thoughts she hadn't been there to hear, the wounds she hadn't been there to heal. How many times had he faced danger without her? How many times had he cried for her and she hadn't been there?

She closed her eyes to try to stop the tears. It was so stupid to be sitting here feeling bad for herself, mourning four years. In those same four years, the people she cared about had survived the journey westward and set up a town for the purpose of saving children, fulfilling her dream. They had a few more scars, and a few more shadows, but they had made it. They had thrived. They had protected her son, and here she was four years later, after all the hard work had been done.

She should be thankful. Thankful that she hadn't awakened 70 years later to discover that everyone she loved was dead. Thankful that all she was missing was a little time, and a few memories. Thankful that she'd made a choice that was obviously the right one.

She knew because of the white walls of the little hospital, and the sounds of people going about their daily business. She could hear laughter through the open window, and she'd heard the stories of food being grown and homes being built—of children who were reasonably sure they would wake up the next morning, and the next one, and the next one after that.

She would do it again. But it was still a hard price to face.

She lifted one hand to wipe at her eyes, and opened them to see Julia standing in the doorway. The bulge in her stomach was easily apparent beneath the white doctor's coat she wore, and the sight of her brought a small smile to Devon's face. These were the things she should be concentrating on.

"I just thought I'd check in on you." Julia walked in and held her Diaglove over Devon. "How did you sleep?"

"Fine," Devon answered. She guiltily wiped at her eyes again. "It's just, uh, the waking up that was a bit harder than normal."

Julia looked up from her Diaglove, and her face softened. "I'm sorry. It's a lot to take in at once, isn't it?"

Devon shrugged. "I know that. I know it'll just be a matter of time before I adjust to everything. But it's an odd feeling to wake up and be in a completely different place, at a completely different time."

Julia looked at her old friend for a moment, and then she gestured to a chair against the wall. "Do you mind if I sit for a bit? Alonzo doesn't like it when I'm on my feet too long." When Devon nodded, Julia pulled the chair up closer to the bed. There was a pause, while Devon surreptitiously wiped her nose, and then Julia spoke carefully, "Devon, I want you to know that we did everything we could to find a cure for you. We didn't move from that spot till we thought we had no other choice. And we never stopped looking for a way to help you."

Devon smiled weakly. "I know. You all did the best you could. But it wasn't something you were going to be able to cure." She slowly pushed herself to an upright position, and Julia hastily helped her get the pillows in place. "Julia, all of you did an amazing job with what you had, and I want you to know that I appreciate everything you've done to get us all here. These tears are just me feeling sorry for myself for a minute." She laughed softly at herself. "Seeing the results, I would do it all again if I had to. For five years, ten years, however long it takes."

Though she had told herself the same thing many times, and Alonzo had repeated them as well, it felt so much better to be granted that absolution from Devon herself. Julia was the doctor, and she was supposed to keep everyone safe and healthy, and to have failed Devon in such a big way was something she hadn't managed to forgive herself for.

"It's good to have you back, Devon." Julia confided. "We were so lost without you for a while." She thought back to those first few weeks, and how they had all slowly gotten over their illness from the biostat chip malfunctions. But there had been no cure for those who were sick at heart from Eben's needless death, and Devon's mysterious ailment. "We never continued without you Devon. If it wasn't John trying to make Devon-decisions, it was everyone naming things after you."

Devon laughed. "You named things after me?" The laugh put a blush of color onto her cheeks, and Julia noticed for the first time that Devon was pale despite her bright eyes.

Still talking, Julia rose from her chair, and walked over to the cabinet on the far wall. There were cups and a faucet, and some water would be good before any solid food this morning. "You would probably feel insulted at some of the things we named after you. But the kids got into it, and couldn't seem to stop. Then everyone else decided they wanted to be immortalized, too. I believe Baines got the plains west of Foot-Stool Mountains."

"Baines' Plains?" Devon raised an eyebrow, and the two women smiled at each other in complete understanding. "Foot-Stool Mountains?" She laughed and accepted the cup from Julia. Sipping at the filtered water she stared out the window and tried to imagine the ragged group of travelers crossing new ground and leaving their mark on it. She felt a little quiver in her heart, a twinge of sadness at what she had missed, and she suppressed it quickly so as not to alarm Julia. "What did you have named after you, Julia?"

Lowering herself back into her chair, Julia grinned, "Well, not to brag, but I have the most distinguished landmark: Julia's Funny Looking Tree."

"No," Devon gasped, giggling. "The kids?" she asked.

Julia suppressed her grin, managed a straight face, and said, "Actually, it was Alonzo. He was just upset because I made him climb it to find out if the nut-like substance growing in it was edible. It was." Her face took on a droll expression. "That fostered the name of Julia's Nuts."

Devon blinked once, and then giggled again, feeling absurdly good at being able to talk like this with another person. She had woken up feeling a little bit lonely and lost, and this conversation made her remember how good it was to laugh with someone without any pressures or urgent matters to attend to. Still smiling, she said, "After that, I'm not sure I want to know what was named after me."

Julia thought for a moment, and then said, "They're all recorded; you can look them up later if you want. My favorite, though, was Devon's Window."

"Window?" Devon looked intrigued. "Where did you find a window?"

"Well, it wasn't a window, of course." Julia explained. "During the middle of that first summer, it was so hot that some of us wanted to take the opportunity to sleep outside. So sometimes, if we felt safe in the location and the weather was good, we could take turns sleeping outside."

Devon nodded. "I remember how warm it was beginning to get. And crossing Baines' Plains and all, it was probably very hot."

"Almost unbearably hot sometimes," Julia agreed. "The only reason why we didn't all sleep outside is that I couldn't expose us all to the same dangers at the same time. But the kids loved it. The nights were usually clear, and the stars were very bright." Julia paused, trying to put her next words together. "Devon's Window is a constellation. More trapezoidal than your traditional square or rectangular window, but it had straight lines. It was True who said it looked like a Window, and then Uly claimed the name."

Devon thought about this, and didn't like the feeling it left in her stomach. "I wasn't dead, Julia," she said softly, unnerved that her son felt she was looking down at him from the stars.

One look at the frown on Devon's face, and Julia realized her mistake, "No, it wasn't like that. Uly said that when we left you in the cryopod, you couldn't see anything but what was right outside your clear glass window. He said if he could, he would transfer your view to the star window, so that you could keep your eye on everything that happened in camp. He thought of Devon's Window like a portal back to the ship."

Devon was silent for a moment, and Julia could see the glistening of unshed tears in her eyes. She looked away to save Devon from any more embarrassment.

"Julia?" Devon asked, looking down at the sheet wrinkled in her hands. "Did Uly—did he…did he handle everything okay?"

From her chair, Julia leaned and covered Devon's hand with hers. "Uly was sad. We all were. But he never gave up hope, and he never let any of us forget that we had two missions: to get to New Pacifica, and then to come back for you. He was stronger than any 9-year-old I could have imagined."

"It must have been so hard for him to leave," Devon said, imagining what she'd have done if she had to leave Uly behind.

"It was," Julia said, sighing as she remembered her own protests. "But he was one of the first to vote to leave, because he said it was what you would have wanted. John finally made the decision, and it nearly broke his heart, but it was Uly who was adamant about moving on."

Devon looked surprised. "John?" she frowned.

Julia mentally chastised herself for not paying attention to what she was saying, and schooled her features to a bland innocence. It was commonly believed by all the Advancers that John's feelings for Devon ran deeper than he ever revealed. It was a familiar conjecture that they all referred to casually, although never in his presence. Obviously, even obscure references would not be taken casually by Devon.

Unused to handling this type of damage control, Julia attempted to focus on a different part of the sentence. "Well, John naturally took over the leadership of the group. Alonzo and I helped, everyone did, but someone had to make the decision. So with Uly determined to find New Pacifica, John finally told us to pack up and head on out." She smiled at Devon, hoping she sounded perfectly ordinary.

But Devon wasn't paying attention to her. She had a genuinely perplexed expression on her face. "Julia," she began, and Julia fervently wished Alonzo would come rescue her right now, "why would John be upset about moving on to New Pacifica?"

"Well," Julia started. She got no farther, as she couldn't think of how to handle the situation delicately. It wasn't for her to say anything at all, and she was no good at this sort of thing. She opted to continue playing dumb. "We were all upset, Devon. We were afraid we had made the wrong decision."

Devon still looked confused. "But he promised. And he knew I had to stay."

"What?" Julia asked, not really following her train of thought, but feeling distinctly uncomfortable in a way she couldn't blame on the extra weight around her belly.

"But he knew," Devon said, apparently talking to herself, frowning at something she was viewing in her mind, "He was the only one who knew why, and he knew how important it was that he get to New Pacifica and establish the colony. Why wouldn't he have gone right away?"

The doctor in Julia quickly overrode the woman, and she focused clearly on Devon's words. "I'm sorry, Devon, you'll have to repeat that again. He knew what?"

"Why I was sick, of course." Devon said.

--------------------

"What!" Alonzo exclaimed. He quickly looked around to make sure that no one was close enough to listen to what they were saying, and then he adjusted the volume on his gear set so that Julia's words wouldn't be audible. He crossed his arms, "Julia, what are you talking about?"

"That's what Devon told me," Julia said helplessly, gesturing with one hand into the air. "I made her tell me the whole story, just so that we could be clear."

The scenery behind her was changing and moving, prompting Alonzo to interrupt and ask her, "Julia, are you pacing?"

Julia looked directly into the image of Alonzo on her gear, and apologized. "Yes, I'm just trying to sort it all out in my head." She noticed that she was feeling just a little out of breath, so she sat in one of the very comfortable chairs that furnished her office. She looked like she was resting, but Alonzo knew that the minute she let up her self-control, she would begin pacing again. She wouldn't be able to settle down till she worked out whatever problem she was dealing with.

"Okay, Julia. I'll be over in a few minutes. I just need to finish up some things here. You can tell me the details when I get there. Should I call any of the others?" He mentally made a checklist of the people who would be required at that kind of meeting.

"No, no," Julia waved him off. "When Devon found out I had no idea what she was talking about, we both decided to keep the knowledge to a minimum of people. You first, because that was my vote, then maybe we'll bring it up to John."

Alonzo considered that. "Me before John?"

Julia nodded, feeling a bit disloyal, "You'll understand why I want to wait at least till I can discuss it with you first."

Alonzo signed off, and Julia sat in her office pondering the new information until he knocked on her door. The knock was an announcement of arrival, not a request for permission. The door wasn't locked and Alonzo walked right in. He scrutinized his wife's appearance, searching for telltale signs of distress. Finding only evidence of deep reflection, he turned so he could lean against the desk while he faced his wife.

"Okay, so what's the story?" Alonzo asked.

In as few words as possible, Julia sketched the basic idea for him.

"The Terrians?" Alonzo echoed. He felt the distinct bitterness of betrayal begin to bubble up. "The Terrians caused her illness?" Not a single word, not a sign, not a dream from any of them. He just couldn't believe it. "You mean because the planet was rejecting her?"

Julia frowned in concentration, as she tried to find the right way to explain the concept. "Not exactly. The planet was rejecting her according to its own timeline. We would all have been next, as we've always assumed. But apparently the timeline would have been a lot sooner than we thought. There were beginning to be too many humans for the Mother, especially after that geolock got set off, and Gaal had all those Terrians captive. The reaction time of the planet to the aliens—us—was going to be a lot faster. Instead of the 8-20 years, in most cases, it would be more like 8-20 months."

Trying to grasp the significance of this, Alonzo speculated, "So Devon struck a deal with the Terrians?"

"Something like that." Julia looked as if she were going to get up and begin pacing again, so Alonzo quickly moved to stand behind her, and began to rub her back while she continued relaying what she knew. "She knew she was going to die. She also knew that the Terrians were making a mistake by allowing the planet to 'cure' itself of us in this way. She tried to convince them that humans could think differently from each other, but they could also work together, and work with the Terrians."

"But that's what Uly and I are doing," Alonzo protested. "It's taken us years to get them to accept that we have different views and standards from the penal colonists."

"I know," Julia acknowledged. "Devon knew it would take a while before they understood. So she got them to give us the time to prove it. They would watch and teach, and only after a verdict had been reached would any of the rest of us possibly fall victim to the rejection from the planet."

"So…what, then? She sacrificed herself?" Alonzo couldn't see her doing something like that without even telling them all.

Julia sighed. This was where it got kind of muddy to her mind. "It had all happened so fast, Alonzo. We were all dying at this point. Devon didn't even know if any of us had any more days left. Bennett and Elizabeth weren't talking. But she did know that even if we all died, there would be the Colony ship following, and she wanted to give them the time to prove themselves as well."

"So she says that she'll be the victim, the proof that her word was good, if the Terrians would keep the rest of us from that illness?" Alonzo summed it up.

Julia nodded. "She was already dying; I don't see how the Terrians would see that as a good deal."

Alonzo knew them better, though. "If she spoke to them on the Dreamplane, then they understood. They understand promises, and that's what she was making them. If we prove ourselves, we could be a good ally against the wrong kind of humans. If not, we die, and no harm done." He shook his head. "If we hadn't worked so hard to come to agreements with the Terrians, we could all be dead right now."

Julia cringed at the thought. She knew he wasn't criticizing her occasional distrust of the Terrians motives and actions, but she still felt a little bit guilty that she hadn't been trying harder to fulfill Devon's end of the bargain. She could only imagine what John would feel when he found out.

Before she voiced this, Alonzo asked, "So Devon knew why she was sick all along? Why didn't she tell us?"

Julia looked a little bit uneasy. "Well, she didn't know all along. It was only the last two days or so. As soon as she found out what was going to happen, she did try to make arrangements, but she was weak and we still had to worry about the biostat chips. She thought she had a little bit more time."

Alonzo frowned. "She contacted John, though. The Terrians must have helped with that memory transfer because they knew they were taking the group leader. That makes a lot more sense now. So why the hell didn't John tell us, then?" His face was creased in friendly annoyance.

Cautiously, Julia said, "Well, that's what I was wondering. Devon honestly thought we had all known and understood, and that's why we built the town, and she was released from her illness. She thought John had told us, and led us."

"You think he knew along, and kept it from us?" Alonzo asked her, coming around to sit on the chair beside hers. Even though he was her husband, Julia wasn't sure what answer she should say. John was one of her very best friends. But she knew first hand that private reasons can be very strong motivations for hard-to-understand public actions.

"I'm saying it's possible he has his reasons for keeping this information from us." Julia conceded.

Alonzo flatly contradicted her. "You don't believe that."

Julia sighed, and put a hand up to her head. She closed her eyes, and admitted, "No, of course I don't believe John would do that. But it's the other reason I'm worried about."

Unable to make the connection, Alonzo just raised his eyebrow and looked at her questioningly.

"Lonz, we've all seen how hard John has worked for this community. No one, except maybe Uly, was more determined to build Devon's dream and make sure she was a part of it. Devon chose him as the leader, and she transferred everything she knew and everything she was into his mind, so that he could make the best decisions. This—" she indicated the conversation between the two of them with a gesture of her hand, "—this was something he was supposed to know. If he didn't know…" she let the sentence hang.

Alonzo whistled, understanding her point now. "Four years, and the answers we were looking for were in his own head. If it turned out one of us had this information and didn't tell, he would have made us travel strapped to the underside of the TransRover."

Julia looked sad, "If he really didn't have a clue, then he's going to be devastated when he finds out that it was supposed to be his responsibility all along."

Alonzo grinned. "So we don't tell him."

"Alonzo!" Julia reproved him. "He has to know. If the knowledge is in his head anyway, he will find out sooner or later."

Alonzo took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead, "Yes, but _we_ don't have to be the ones that tell him. Doc, everything's okay right now. Devon's back, relations with the Terrians are going well, and even though we didn't know we were in the middle of a trial we succeeded just fine. Let Devon tell him in her own time. At least we know he won't kill her."

Her mouth twitched as she tried not to smile. "It won't be for want of trying. She's just the only one who can take him."

He grinned his best fly-boy grin and said, "That's the spirit." Then his expression changed and he kissed her softly on the mouth, "Everything will be okay, Julia. The best thing for John is that Devon's back and if there was some miscommunication somewhere, I'm sure they'll work it out."

Julia rested her head on his shoulder and said, "I hope so, Lonz."

---------------------

Disclaimer: I don't own Earth 2 or any of the characters in the show or on the planet. If I quote something else by accident, I don't own that, either. If you require more detail in a disclaimer you may want to read someone else's, because I really don't know what to say.

(AN: I know I originally promised like a little D&D romance-piece, but sadly there's all this plot that keeps messing up my romance. This chapter was so hard because I was trying to lay as much groundwork for the plot-behind-the-romance so I don't have to focus on it later. Sorry if it was a little on the boring side. I had at least another scene planned for this chapter, but it will have to wait till the next one. This one was getting too long. Suggestions are always welcome, including a better title for this chapter. So, the next chapter will have John in it. And Devon, too. And they will be _in the same room_. That's right. Stay tuned.)


	6. A Dangerous Thing

Chapter 5—A Dangerous Thing

(AN: I had already written half this chapter weeks ago, but when I came back to it, I realized everything I wrote was terrible. So I had to rewrite it. And that's my excuse for taking so long. It's not as good as it was in my head, but it's tons better than the last edition, so I hope it was worth the wait.)

**Day 2, Year 3 N.P.**

The sun was way overhead when he finally convinced himself to stop by the hospital.

He had woken up early from a restless night to start immediately on a dozen tasks that could only be accomplished by him. As the "mechanic" for Eden Advance, John Danziger had been much in demand. Now, after three years in New Pacifica, he found his time and energy were still being spent on fixing things that should not have been broken, and should not have been repairable, but somehow were both. The difference was that the day-to-day tasks as Mr. Handyman were less urgent in town than they had been in the wilderness.

John could wake up every day without the weight of station debt that used to greet him every morning on the stations, or the certainties of immediate danger on the road they traveled across G889. He could wake up feeling satisfied that his daughter had a good life ahead of her—healthy and happy and safe.

But for the last three years, he spent every day with a moment in mind when he would be able to tell a certain auburn-haired woman that he had led her friends—her family—to their destination, he had watched over her son as his own, and he had decided to stay and live his life out on a dangerous faraway planet. And all of these things he had done for her.

Some would argue that he had no choice in any of those situations. But John knew that if he made a decision, it didn't matter that there weren't any other options, it was still his decision.

So why was he out supervising a building project and inspecting a plumbing obstacle when this self-same woman was awake for the first time in years, and lying in a bed not more than a mile away?

He asked the question many times over the course of the morning, and gave himself many arguments. In the end, he just found himself walking in the direction of the hospital, and decided he would see where it took him.

He wasn't surprised to find himself standing outside the door to the recovery wing of the new hospital. The old hospital hadn't had any wings, just a few rooms. But this new one had different sections of a few rooms each, which the town of New Pacifica fondly referred to as "wings." Most of the rooms were empty, more often than not, and everyone was hoping they stayed that way for a long time.

But he knew this wing had at least one occupied room. He glanced at the board on the outer door, verifying this information. Looking around, he didn't see anyone, so his feet just kept moving till they stood outside the closed door marked 7-C.

Someone else was probably visiting her. And if not, she probably wanted to be alone for a while. But she might just be tired and needing to sleep…

His mind went through his litany of excuses again, but as he put his hand on the doorknob, none of them seemed like a good reason to put off his visit. He knocked lightly on the door with his free hand, just to make sure she wasn't asleep.

There was a second of silence, and then a rather cheery, "Come in!"

He opened the door wide and walked into the room. "Hey, it's me. I just thought—" he paused, looking at what appeared to be an empty room. The bed was unoccupied, and the window was wide open. The light breeze was making the curtains billow softly, and he could smell the unmistakable scents of fresh flowers, obviously coming from the vase on the table. He noticed a lot of things, but didn't see Devon.

A prickle at the back of his neck, not entirely unfamiliar, prompted him to look over his shoulder. There she was, sitting in a chair against the wall, half hidden by the open door.

She looked a little bit embarrassed. He only knew that because he knew her face better than he knew anyone's. But he didn't see what was bothering her.

"Hi," she said. "I wasn't expecting you. Julia said you were usually very busy, especially after a big day like yesterday. Would you like to sit down?" She laughed, and gestured at one of the chairs near her. "I'm afraid I don't have anything to offer you, but I believe there's some water on the counter."

As he couldn't remain standing awkwardly in the center of the room, he took the chair next to her, farthest from the door. "No, thanks, I had lunch already. I just thought I'd come by and see how you were doing." He looked at her closely and saw that though she was still pale and looked very tired, she had more of her old spirit back. It relieved the guilt in his mind that he hadn't stopped by sooner. "So," he asked, trying to think of what to say next, "how are you doing?"

"Oh, fine," she said, brightly. "Not quite up to full speed, but I'll be getting there. Uly stopped by not too long ago, and the others have sort of popped in and out all morning." She smiled at him. "I think I could get used to people waiting on me hand and foot."

It was a lie, and he knew it. She would hate being waited on, treated like an invalid. But he took it for the light-hearted comment she meant it for. "Not a chance, Adair. Everyone pulls their own weight, here. Once you're all ready to go again, you won't get a second's rest."

"I'm looking forward to it," she admitted. "I can't wait to go around and see what New Pacifica looks like. I can't get my mind around all the things that have been done here. I heard that the Martins opened up a restaurant-café, of all things." She laughed. "I guess Morgan would find a way to try and turn a profit. Bess said she liked the cooking and liked people coming in to eat and talk. She's promised me a load of food already that I couldn't possibly finish."

Listening to her talk, he had this odd sensation that she was being too cheery. He narrowed his eyes a bit, and looked at her closer. She smiled again, and said something he didn't quite hear about the Wildflower. Her laugh sounded genuine, and she seemed in a good mood, but she was hiding something.

He cut into her next remark with a scowl. "What's going on, Adair?"

"What?" she sounded surprised. "What are you talking about?"

"You." He gestured. "You're being too cheerful." He probably should have just kept his mouth shut, but he wasn't used to having all this insight with the real person right there. He saw something wrong, and he was going to find out what it was.

"Too cheerful?" she repeated, confused. "I don't understand." She sat up straight in her chair, setting her other foot on the ground.

And then he saw it. He saw it in the sluggish way she moved—the way she had to gather herself just so she could sit up straight. He frowned, and said loudly, "Adair, are you supposed to be out of bed?"

"What?" she said again. But she didn't sound confused this time. She looked at him levelly. "I feel just fine, and I'm not doing anything but sitting."

His gaze narrowed, as he looked at the distance from the bed to the chair. Scowling, he stood up and towered over her. "Did you walk over here by yourself?"

She looked up at him, amused. "Of course. Some things you don't forget how to do, even after 4 years." He noticed that she didn't move, though. The Devon he was used to would have been on her feet at the tone of his voice. She'd be carrying on about how she was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She would have pushed at him, the way he was pushing at her.

This Devon was just smiling at him calmly, trying to make him think there was nothing to be upset about. But he could see through her now. And it just made him angry. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Adair? You're not supposed to be out of bed!"

Her chin lifted slightly, and she said, in a very even tone, "I hardly think you're the one to judge. I feel just fine, and there's nothing wrong with me sitting here for a little while."

He glared at her. "If there's nothing wrong, then why are you sitting there looking guilty?"

That stopped whatever she was going to say next. "What are you talking about?"

"Your face. You looked guilty. Like you'd just done something you weren't supposed to do, and were trying to keep me from finding out. Why would you have that look if Julia said you could go traipsing about your room?"

"You can read my face?" she asked, reaching a hand up to touch her cheek. She was surprised. She hadn't meant to deceive him. But on some level she had been pretending like she was feeling better than she was so he wouldn't ask questions. Whatever level it was, he had seen it, and seen it clearly.

She knew that all her thoughts and memories were archived somewhere in John's mind, but she hadn't really thought about how that would extend into his life. She thought it was something like a filing cabinet where you open files and you read them, and you put them back.

She hadn't thought that by him having that knowledge he'd be able to read her expressions and her intentions as easily as he read his daughter's. It unnerved her a little bit to know that someone had, not just facts and information, but understanding and awareness about every facet of her life. She felt the urge to cover herself up so he couldn't see into her.

He saw the look in her eyes, and recognized it for what it was—fear, indignation, embarrassment. She hadn't understood before what it meant to be around someone who knew everything about you. It meant you had no secrets, no real privacy. He imagined it was very difficult. The Devon inside his head told him it was. He had meant to yell at her—real Devon, that is—a little bit more. But he couldn't, so he reached down and grabbed her by the arm to pull her up, intent on leading her to her bed.

The look on her face changed abruptly as she went completely white at the change in position, and wobbled on her feet. His hand was still on her arm, but he quickly moved to put his arm around her waist before she collapsed towards him. He cursed inwardly. She clearly was not feeling all that much better. She had meant him to be fooled by her high spirits, and he was.

"Dammit, Adair," he grumbled. "You are in no shape to be walking." He bent down to pick her up and then carried her the half dozen steps to the bed. She was limp in his arms, and very light, as he laid her carefully on the sheets. He set her legs down first, and then removed his arm from behind her knees so that he could lay her back against her pillows with a minimum of movement.

He reached to pull the sheet up, and one hand tucked it against her. His other hand was feeling her forehead, noting that her skin was cool to the touch. "How do you feel?" he asked, concerned, as he bent over her.

He expected to see the bleary look of pain or disorientation in her eyes, but they were clear and alert as they locked onto his. "Fine, I think," she answered softly. "Thank you."

He was suddenly very conscious of his hand resting against her side. Slowly, he moved his hand up her arm to her face, to brush the hair away. "Don't do that again," he said. "Please."

She nodded, unnerved by the way he was staring at her. "I know. It was too far. I was fine getting across the room, but I couldn't get back." He didn't say anything, and so she asked, "Why are you looking at me that way?"

He was searching her eyes. Being this close to her had his heart beating loudly in his ears. There were things he wanted to say. But in her eyes, he saw only the barest spark of awareness. If she'd felt anything, he'd be able to see it. Outrage, nervousness, longing, shock—but there wasn't anything other than normal feelings of embarrassment. She'd feel the same if anyone else had seen her in her weakened state, attempting more than she was capable of.

She wasn't aware of him, yet. She was the Devon of four years ago, determined and willful, who saw him as a leader and as a trusted companion. Enough time had passed for him to want more, and to believe there was more, but those thoughts hadn't crossed her mind. So he answered her casually, pulling away from her, "I'm just worried about you, Devon. You need more rest."

"I know," she said. "I'm sorry, and I won't try that much again." She grinned, "Today, at least." Her color was returning, he was glad to see. Still, he'd better make sure to send a doctor in to check on her.

"Adair," he started, "I need to be getting back. I'll be by later. Try not to get in any trouble until then."

She said, "Okay," and watched him leave. She contemplated the back of the door for a few moments, trying to sort through the thoughts in her head. Things would be changing between her and John. She had known, of course, that with the mind-transfer he would be privy to information that was both useful to the survival of the group, as well as knowledge that was completely irrelevant to anyone but herself.

John was a decent man. She trusted his discretion, and had known then that he would act honorably regarding any of her thoughts and memories. But she hadn't thought about when she would face him later. He would protect her privacy to everyone else. But between the two of them…they both knew she was an open book to him.

She was used to a certain amount of solitude. Back on the stations she'd been part of one of the Founding Families, and so had been treated differently from everyone else. Her only real friend had been Yale, but she soon realized that it was better to have the one true friend than the thousands of people who wanted to be around her only for her power or influence. So she stayed to herself and her lessons, and made herself self-sufficient and confident.

When Uly was born, and then later diagnosed with the Syndrome, her time had been almost completely consumed with care for him, and her search for a cure. She'd never had the chance to get close enough to another person to share a part of herself.

She thought back to a moment before, when his hand had traveled softly up her arm, and his face was so close she could see golden flecks in his brown eyes…

She felt tingles in her arm, and rubbed at it absently.

John was close now—closer than she'd ever allowed anyone to be. He could reach right past her barriers and touch her mind, just like he reached right past her physical barriers and touched her face. The thought unsettled her. She was in dangerous unknown waters.

There was a knock on the door, startling her, and Dr. Vasquez came through. "Hello, Devon. I just thought I'd stop in here and check on you. Are you feeling alright?" The concerned look on his face and the quick way he set about checking her vitals told Devon that he was likely sent in by John.

She decided to put her thoughts away for another time and concentrated instead on answering Dr. Vasquez's questions.

---------------------

As Danziger walked through the hospital, he learned quickly that Julia wasn't anywhere in the building. So he walked across the street to the Town Hall, and found her in her office. He knocked once, then twice, then three times. An odd knock, but True made it up years ago as the "Eden Advance knock," and while he used it at first because she liked it, he used it now out of habit.

Julia said "Come in," reasonably assured by the knock that it would be someone she knew, and wasn't at all surprised to see John. He often came in during the afternoon hours to give her a quick report of things she should know about.

He only took a moment to tell her of the things that had broken and been repaired as a result of the Spring celebrations yesterday. Then he got down to asking Julia what was really on his mind.

She set down her pen and the stack of papers in her hand, and looked up at him. "As far as I can see, John, she's doing fine. She's recovering from a total system failure, and so we can expect that she's going to be very weak for a while. If she overworks herself, that will delay her recovery, but there is no indication there is a danger of relapse."

He looked partially relieved. "That's good news, then. Looks like the Terrians kept their side of the deal."

"Are you going to go see her today?" Julia asked. She was worried that Devon might give him details about the Terrians' mind-transfer. She wanted to talk with her more about that first.

John shook his head. "I already saw her today." He looked like he was about to say something else, and then he changed his mind. "Have you heard anything about the rest of the Terrians' promise?"

Julia nodded. "We're going to make the announcements tonight at the weekly meeting. The news about Devon's cure, although I think that's already leaked, and the news about the Terrians willing to help cure the Syndrome children."

"It's been 2 years," John said, "you think we've done enough to get them to trust the Terrians with their children?"

Julia just looked at him. "I hope so, John. I really hope so."

--------------------

(AN: Their time together is really short, I know. But I'm doing that on purpose. First of all, because I think it works for my story. And second, these chapters would never end if I gave them REAL 20-minute conversations. So, for the next chapter, I THINK I can work in a much longer John/Devon scene. Stay tuned. If you can figure out why I named this chapter what I did, I might contemplate having the next chapter posted next week. Bribe!)


	7. Call of Duty

Chapter 6—Call of Duty

(AN: I'm terrible, I know. This was supposed to be part of a much larger chapter, but I started feeling guilty about not having posted anything for the last couple weeks. This one is the shortest chapter yet. Don't think of it as a chapter, think of it as a segue into the NEXT chapter, where I promise I won't be working so hard just to develop some plot. This was going to be a romance, and it WILL be…really.)

"To some, the prospect of being idle for a short time is very appealing. It has never been that way for me."—Devon Adair, spokeswoman of Adair Industries

**Day 4, Year 3 N.P.**

It was beginning to get just a little bit crowded in the hospital.

Most of the colonists had assumed that Ulysses Adair had gotten better because of his time spent on G889. Whenever anyone asked how it came about that he had been cured of the Syndrome, the standard answer was, "Indigenous life and indigenous air." Not quite a lie, but certainly a far cry from the truth. All the parents had high hopes that they're children would respond similarly to the new planet, and everyday the children got stronger. But not cured, the way Uly was.

Everyone watched Uly running and playing and laughing and they wondered why their children could just barely manage walking without an immuno-suit.

Two days ago, they got their answer. In an unscheduled town meeting, everyone learned that Ulysses Adair had, indeed, been healed by indigenous life forms. They also learned that Devon—whom most had never met, but recognized instantly, having seen vids on the Stations—was also healed by the Terrians, though not quite in the same way.

And for the last two days, the hospital was receiving more visitors than it had seen in months.

Some parents were ecstatic at learning of this opportunity for their children to be completely cured of the ailment that had plagued every waking moment since it had been diagnosed. Some parents.

Most of the parents were concerned. Why haven't we been told earlier? What if something goes wrong? How can we trust those THINGS with our children?

Despite the last two years of working to get the humans and the Terrians to get along, most humans remained distrustful of the creatures that didn't speak and didn't laugh. Even Grendlers spoke, or made gestures attempting to communicate. The Terrians were silent and still, and they carried weapons with them.

Trust them? Send our children into the ground?

Fully half of the town wanted to explore other options. The other half were willing to let the Terrians cure their children, they just wanted more details. And it seemed that both halves were frequenting the hospital for check-ups, for information, for "suggestions," and specifically, to talk to Devon.

It was nice to have a leader here. Not that Junior Doctor who relied on advice from the Drone. Not that former Earth-res, married to that whiny bureaucrat. A _real_ leader. Someone with authority, and someone who understood how hard life had been here on the planet. She was one of them.

And so they came in droves. They complained about the land, and about the air, and about the way the ocean was so salty. They complained about Terrians, and about Grendlers. They complained about the way the Governor wouldn't let them develop any land outside of the area of New Pacifica. They complained about the houses they lived in, built of whatever could be found at hand.

The doctors tried to hold the crowds back, claiming that Devon still needed to rest. But Devon insisted they all be allowed in to have their say. She was not officially in charge of the population at this moment, but they were still her responsibility. And if she could show to them the face of a leader who trusted in the work they were doing, and who firmly believed in the cure offered by the Terrians, then maybe the rift that was dividing the community could be healed, so that the children could have their chance at healing, too. After all, that was why they were there.

They would see what happened after the first batch of children was cured. There were only 15 on the list, and Devon could see it was going to be a hard battle to convince all the parents to give their children this chance. She knew firsthand how scary it was to let go of your child, even for a minute, always thinking this time could be the last time. But she believed, and every person that came in to see her, left knowing that she did. And they also knew that to complain about the Governor, or the Drone, or the Earth-res, or even the Bureaucrat, was a sure way to get yourself asked to leave.

---------------------

Devon was feeling very, very tired. All morning she had spoken with the people of the town of New Pacifica. Her mind was whirling with names and news. She hadn't had time to catch up on everything that had happened in the last four years, but after today she had a very good idea of what had been going on in the last two years.

When she was by herself, which was maybe 5 minutes in an hour, she laughed about some of the ridiculous things the colonists were complaining about. Imagine complaining that the air smelled funny! Like the ocean, she imagined. Or the fields of food that were growing. Or the wind off the mountain ranges to the East.

But she just listened to their complaints and their comments, and she said she would look into the matters. She laughed sometimes, too, about the comments about her friends. Sometimes she agreed with the remarks, particularly when someone brought up the difficulties with working with Danziger. But since these remarks were often accompanied with the derogatory use of the word "Drone," she never ever showed anything but an icy glint in her eyes as she assured them that without John Danziger, they wouldn't have made it this far. And without _Dr. _Heller, they would likely all be dead 10 times over. And that without Bess and Martin Morgan, and Alonzo Solace, and every other member of her Advance crew, the life they had now, as unbearable they felt it to be, would not have been possible.

It was all worth it, however, when Devon received visitors who didn't come to complain or offer counsel, or demand information about the Terrians. There was a handful of people who were actually grateful to Devon and to all those who helped to make life on this planet bearable. There were people who loved the ocean, and loved the rain. There were people who brought their sons or daughters, proudly showing her how much progress had been made in the last two years. And then they thanked her, and they welcomed her to their town. And these were the names that Devon took note of. These were the faces she committed to memory. She would need all the allies she could get.

But now it was nearly evening, and her day's work was done. There was a silly sign hanging outside her door proclaiming office hours. Uly had made it, insisting that she would otherwise be bothered all hours of the day and night. And on this second day, she was glad of his foresight.

She looked out the window and saw that the sun was still high in the sky. Surely another hour or so of daylight left. Instead of lying in bed, contemplating the problems of others, she would use the time to focus on herself. Her strength was finally returning. She could see that two days of rest (lying down, specifically, as she hadn't actually had any rest for two days) had done her body a world of good.

She could now get up fine by herself, and even traverse short distances. This meant she could go anywhere in the hospital with no problems. Today she was going to try _outside_ the hospital. She knew that Julia, as the Governor of this town, worked in a building not far from the hospital. A City Hall, of sorts. It was Devon's understanding that Julia also lived there with Alonzo.

As she left her room, she flipped the door sign over, indicating that she was no longer receiving visitors. The short walk across the street to City Hall winded her quite a bit. It wasn't so far, but it was the farthest she'd gone yet. She was determined to put up the appearance of health, so that anyone passing by would not say to themselves that Devon Adair should be back in the hospital. If she didn't get out of that hospital soon, she would go mad.

Fortunately for Devon, Julia's office was on the first floor. There wasn't anyone around waiting to see her, which surprised Devon, since Julia had mentioned that she was being overrun with people who wanted information on the Terrians. Perhaps the initial wave was finally dying down.

The door to Julia's office was closed, so Devon knocked on it politely. There was a muffled call of "Just a minute!" and so Devon took the opportunity to seat herself on one of the chairs right outside. She examined the room, and saw that it was a mix of the sophisticated Station designs and building materials, and the more common lumber that she was seeing as part of many of the buildings. It appeared sturdy, though, and she experienced a thrill of pride at all that had been accomplished. She wasn't waiting long, when she heard Julia call for her to come in

Julia was concentrating on a computer screen, and when she looked up, she seemed surprised to see Devon. "Oh, if I knew it was you, I wouldn't have kept you waiting. You didn't use the knock."

"The knock?" Devon asked.

Julia nodded, and smiled. "Silly, I know. It's one knock, then two, then three. Or maybe it's three, then two, then one. At any rate, it helps us screen out the people we really want to see, and the people who are just coming to waste time. Although," she added wryly, "I'm surprised no one else has caught on by now."

Devon grinned, as she sat in a chair in front of the desk. "It feels like I've entered a world of intrigue. Is it really an Us-Against-Them situation?"

Julia thought about it. "I know that sounds bad, but it really is. Most of the time. When the colonists first landed, it was a big adjustment—living on a planet. And with all the material we lost in the crash, most of them were appalled at the 'primitive' way they were forced to live. Almost everyone is pretty comfortable with things by now." She shook her head. "There are some things—you know—that we've had to keep from them, temporarily. But it's like a battle getting them to accept any sort of rules or regulations."

"I can tell," Devon agreed. "I've had a lot of visitors, and they are all bent on complaining about something or other."

"Yeah, Uly told me about your official position as the Hearer of Complaints. Honestly, they do need someone with your authority to help make matters clear to them. Simply by being an Adair, your word is law." She looked concerned. "It's a great help to me to have you here, but if this starts to inhibit your recovery at all, you have to pull back. Whatever they want to ask about can wait."

Devon felt an annoyance at her inconvenient state of health. "Really, Julia, I feel fine. I'm getting stronger every day. But I would like to move out of the hospital soon. It makes me feel ridiculously weak and helpless. And I think that if people saw how fast my recovery is that it would help them to put faith in the Terrians' healing powers."

Normally, Devon would just go about giving orders. But she was very pleased with the way the town was running itself, and so to show her support she'd decided she would follow the current chain of command. At least until she was up to full speed. It grated her nerves a little bit, to be told when it was time to eat, and when it was time to rest, and when she could leave the hospital, but it wouldn't be for long.

"Honestly, Devon, I can see that you're getting better." Julia sat back in her chair, shifting her weight and wiggling her feet a little bit. "But it was a bit of a surprise you coming back to us right now. This doesn't sound very well ordered, but we don't have a place for you to go. Honestly, you're welcome to stay with Alonzo and me, or any of the others, but right now we don't have a place built for you to actually set up as a home."

Though the words were simple truth, and Devon could easily see how they had been unprepared to set up a new house for her and Uly, it still hurt a little bit, to feel as if she had no place in New Pacifica.

Julia quickly added. "We are, of course, working on that little problem as quickly as possible. But with spring just starting, almost everyone is concentrating on the planting." She looked apologetic. "I'm sorry, Devon, but the hospital seems the most logical place for you right now, since we know there's enough room to accommodate visitors, and it's also close enough that your recovery can be closely monitored. You'd be welcome to stay in my extra room, but the crib that's in there might be a little small."

Devon understood. It was best to take the high ground. She could exert more authority and influence from a hospital room with a sign on the door, than from someone else's spare room, or extra couch. It would have to do for now.

She stayed to discuss matters with Julia a little bit longer, and then she rose to leave. But before she went out, she pointed at the sign on Julia's desk, and asked a question that she'd been wondering since she came in. "'Governor _Solace_'?"

Julia looked up sharply. Obviously, Devon wasn't wondering about her marriage to Alonzo. She considered her answer, and then she said, simply, knowing Devon would understand, "Heller was my mother's name."

And Devon did understand. Julia had been raised according to the dictates of the Council, her mother being a prominent Council member. There were many reasons why the name of her husband was a better name than the name of her mother. The most obvious being that while most people wouldn't recognize the name of Councilwoman Heller, it was best to sever all ties that could connect Julia with the Council. Clearly, the fact that Julia had once been a Council agent was a closely guarded secret. There was no way the town would have accepted her leadership, and elected her Governor if that fact were known.

But it was just as clear to Devon that in this new life Julia chose she had found the type of enduring, compassionate love that she had never received as a child growing up in the shadow of the Council. The difference between the two lives was as evident as the difference between the name Heller, and the name Solace.

To Devon Adair, the idea of giving up her family name was an absolute impossibility. When someone married into the Adair family, man or woman, they changed their name, not the other way around. On the Stations, it was because of the influence of the Adair name. Interestingly enough, despite the fact that they were light years away from the Station hierarchies, the influence of the Adair name was still strong.

She hated wielding her name like a weapon, but when planning this expedition, she had been forced to pull all the strings she could. And now, it seemed that she would have to continue exerting influence and authority, all of which was connected to her name.

But had she been Julia, she would have changed her name, too.

---------------------

(AN: Soon, I promise...)


	8. Faint Stirrings

Disclaimer: All quotes preceding chapters (except for the ones I made up) are taken from a website that I find fairly reliable, but still may be wrong. If I am misquoting, or if I am attributing the words to the wrong person, I would appreciate any corrections. I do not own any material that I am attributing to any real person. I also do not own the Earth 2 series, or any characters or references from it.

**Chapter 7—Faint Stirrings**

"April is the cruellest month, breeding  
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing  
Memory out of desire, stirring  
Dull roots with spring rain."

-_TS Eliot__, The Waste Land_

**Day 4, Year 3 N.P.**

It had been another long, dirty day. While Spring was certainly one of the major highlights of the year, it was easily the busiest season. For months the rain had drenched the landscape, and with the return of some clear skies, Danziger had lost no time in starting out on some of the many projects the colonists had to have done "last year."

Today had involved a lot of pipes, and a lot of mud. If there was a clean spot on Danziger, he certainly didn't know where to look. He opened the door to the house he shared with True and Uly, and headed straight for the bathroom.

When the Colony ships arrived, there had been quite a few "dry" showers available for those who wanted them installed in their homes. And all the public buildings, like the hospital, had a few of them, too. But John preferred the feel of water. You couldn't beat real water, fresh and clean, to erase the memory of mud and dirt. And today, there was a lot to erase.

He normally liked to take long, hot showers. It gave him the chance to unwind after a hard day, and to relax enough to be good company for the kids. But lately he'd been doing anything he could to keep from standing still for too long. It seemed like his brain just worked overtime when his body stopped moving, and he wasn't ready to deal with all the thinking. So he'd jammed a couple more things into his day, and mumbled something to the kids about getting a good start on the new projects. Today he only stayed under the water long enough to get clean, so he could work on something else.

Maybe after dinner he would go talk to Alonzo about that problem he'd said he was having with one of the vehicles.

He was toweling himself dry when he heard the knock at the door.

Three-Two-One.

John rolled his eyes. You'd think a simple thing like a child's secret knock wouldn't get so twisted up. But somebody was always getting it backwards. It was probably Walman again, he thought, coming to ask him to take over his perimeter watch tonight. Well, tonight just wasn't the night to ask him to stand around in the chilly dark, a man alone with his thoughts.

He took the towel with him, and hair still dripping, went to tell Walman he was going to have to find someone else to con into taking his watch.

--------------------

Devon was in a pensive mood when she left Julia's office. There was so much to try to understand. The atmosphere of the whole Colony, the moods of the different groups of peoples, the political and social undercurrents, not to mention the difficulties with interacting with a new planet. She thought about going back to the hospital room, her errand being finished.

But she'd been in there for the better part of four days, now. She thought she had enough strength to stay out a little longer. As long as she went slowly, she could see a bit more of New Pacifica.

She didn't know when she decided to stop by the Danzigers' house, but it was at the top of a very short list of places she knew how to reach. She had made Uly tell her all about the place he'd lived for the last couple of years. She knew how to reach it from the beach, from the Terrian caves to the north, from the farming land to the east, from the hospital, and from the Wildflower.

But when she found herself on the doorstep (after several short rest stops that she pretended were to enjoy the view), she wasn't prepared to see her name on the metal doorplate. "Adair" and "Danziger" on two separate lines.

Not for the first time she was struck with pride in her son. It would have been so easy for him to have gotten lost in the shuffle. He had been a sick child, and even after the Terrians cured him, it was hard for her to think that he could manage even day-to-day living without her. But for four years, he had not only been part of a small team that had accomplished the nearly impossible, he had somehow made sure the "Adair" name wasn't forgotten, even if he was the only one.

She knocked. She felt a little silly doing it, but she knocked 3-2-1, and hoped she'd picked the right combination. While she waited, she turned to look at the other houses. They were close together, but still considerably further apart than homes on the Stations, or even than the surface of Earth had been. Most of the houses looked to be made out of different materials, and different designs. In the sector closest to the hospital, she'd noticed most of the homes seemed to be cookie-cutter shells.

It may be another significant difference between those who resented life on the planet, and those who embraced it. She would file away the detail in case she could make use of it later.

As the door swung open, Devon turned around, and it was a toss up as to who was more surprised. She'd expected the house to be empty, or perhaps one of the kids home. She hadn't thought to see John when she'd been hearing about how busy he always was.

But, perhaps it was a greater surprise that he opened the door damp and dripping, wearing only a towel. She'd seen naked men before, of course. It wasn't particularly shocking, and this particularly body she'd seen naked before, well, more or less. It was hard to walk 20 klicks of dusty road for months on end without getting to know everyone on a high level of intimacy that wasn't actually personal.

But this wasn't a dusty road, or a small pond on the edge of their campsite. This was a home, a home with her name on it, and a man answering the door in a towel.

The real surprise for her was her own reaction to that man. She fought the urge to blush, and wondered frantically where her usual cool attitude was. There was no reason, no reason at all for her heart to start pounding so hard, but she thought he might be able to hear it. And that only made her blush harder.

It was just John, she told herself. John, who knew about that time when she was 8 and she told Yale she'd decided she wanted to be a ninja when she grew up. John, who fought her every decision as they crossed a continent. John, who could braid his daughter's hair as well as he could rewire an ATV.

John, who was _still_ standing there in a towel, while she tried not to look anywhere except his face. What made it rather difficult was that he was…not unattractive. She hadn't really thought about that before, certainly not enough to matter, anyway. But it was hard not to now, when the man was staring at her, wearing a _towel_. He had very intense eyes. She'd never noticed before.

She felt a tingle in the small of her back that she attributed to unease.

"Hello, John," she said brightly, trying to hide the fact that he'd unsettled her. "I didn't know if you'd be home. You're looking—" she hesitated, "uh, well."

He smiled, and for a minute she thought he was laughing at her, and she felt herself starting to blush again. But he just shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, I thought you were someone else. Come on in, Devon." He held the door open for her, and when she walked in he closed it.

She took a few steps, and then turned to find him right behind her. Whatever she'd been about to say died on her lips, and she struggled to pull together a coherent sentence. He really did have the most amazing eyes. There was another tingle somewhere inside her stomach, which she chose to ignore.

"I'll be right back," he said. "I'm just gonna go get dressed." He started to edge past her, and she hastily took a few steps backwards, realizing she was blocking his path.

"Of course, I'm just going to, uh, look around." She realized how that sounded, and added, "If you don't mind, I mean. I know this is your house."

"Sure. Knock yourself out." He shrugged, something she really wouldn't have recommended in a towel, but he managed to make it look easy, and went through a door on the far side of the main room.

She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Her heart was really pounding much too fast. It must be because she hadn't been this far away from the hospital before, and it had tired her out. She'd have to be more careful the next time.

She lifted a hand to her forehead, trying to reorient herself. She thought she felt just a tad bit warm. Yes, next time she would definitely take more rest stops. In fact, she'd just sit herself down right now and take a few minutes to recover.

A glance around the room revealed a large space, comfortably decorated with simple things. There was a large couch on one side, with a small table in front of it, and a few other chairs that looked to be handmade, simple and sturdy. A couple of lamps were placed to provide some light.

A smattering of dirty shoes by the front door indicated a few things about the occupants, most notably that dirty shoes were limited to outside but were not required to become clean shoes. She smiled at that. Nothing wrong with a little dirt. Unlike on the Stations where everything was routinely sanitized, and the odds of getting your shoes dirty were directly related to how often you spilled things on them, not how often or how far you walked.

She carefully bent over to remove her boots, and left them neatly beside each other, which distinguished them from the other shoes which appeared to be placed haphazardly. That done, she turned her attention back to the room, and made her way over to the couch. There were various seashells placed around the room in no particular order, although the effect was pleasant. There were some objects she didn't recognize, and a sweater thrown over the back of a chair.

The table was covered with some metal parts that she assumed was part of something larger that was being taken apart. Or maybe put back together. There wasn't a whole lot else in the room, although as she got closer the dining area revealed another table and several chairs. Obviously, the Danziger-Adair household received many guests to require that many more chairs.

The chairs were quite impressive. Each of them appeared to be slightly different, but obviously made by the same person, with the same style. The design looked deceptively simple, but on second glance, it was really quite intricate. The legs had an elegance that belonged in a fine restaurant, and the tall curved backs had pretty designs carved into the lattice pattern of the wood. Elegant and functional, and obviously using natural resources.

Devon shook her head. Real wooden chairs. Hand-carved. They would have been worth a small fortune back home. The Adair Family had had a wooden dining set that they only rarely used. Devon had always thought it a sad waste.

It pleased her to see that artistry was developing and flourishing. It was exactly the kind of thing that a new colony hoped to encourage. She forgot about her intention to sit for a few moments as she went over to examine the chairs even closer.

However, she immediately forgot the chairs as she got even closer to the dining area and saw a picture hanging on the wall. It was a painting, obviously also done by hand and most likely using native resources. Having studied art, Devon might have noticed that the painting showed remarkable talent, though not yet a mastery of the medium. She could have noticed the vibrant colors and bold strokes that made the picture seem life-like and vivacious. And like the chairs, the frame was made of wood and carved simply so as not to draw attention away from the subject of the picture.

But she would notice these things later. What she saw was two children playing knee-deep in the ocean, dirty and disheveled, but laughing in delight. One was a young girl of 12 or 13, bent over so her hands could splash at the water. Her eyes were bright, and full of fun, and her ponytail, though pulled back, hung to her side to dip into the water. The other was a small boy who could have been 9, if you considered he was a bit small. His curly hair was dripping with water, one hand stretched out to fend off more splashes, the other reached for the water. The expression on both faces was captured so clear, she could almost hear the shouts and the laughter. Behind them stretched an ocean of deep blue and white froth, and in the sky a bright sun was beginning to dip below the watery horizon. The horizon of the _western_ ocean.

The caption on the bottom of the picture read, "The Future of New Pacifica."

The picture started to blur as she felt the tears beginning to fill her eyes. She reached out to touch the face of the young boy, but pulled her hand quickly away so she could catch at a tear that managed to spill over. Something like pride moved so rapidly through her she almost didn't think she could hold it all in. So many obstacles, such difficult odds. It would be worth it all, it would have to be. She would make sure it was.

"That was the day we reached the ocean," a voice from behind her said. "We came out a bit north of where New Pacifica was supposed to be, but Bess said the title sounded better that way."

Devon turned to see John watching her, fully dressed now, a look that might have bordered concern on his face. She abruptly recalled the tears on her face, and quickly apologized. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

He raised an eyebrow, and she immediately wished she hadn't said that. As if she had to make excuses. She had nothing to be sorry over. But he just looked over at the picture and said quietly, "Affects me the same sometimes."

There was silence for a moment then he looked at her again and said, "I have vid footage if you'd like to see it. That's where Bess got the picture from."

She was tempted, but Devon shook her head. "Not—not right now. Thanks, but there will be plenty of time for that—later."

John understood as perhaps Devon did not, that what she really meant was maybe later, when she was alone. It gave him a twinge of annoyance that she wouldn't even share that with him, but he ignored it. She needed more time.

She was looking back at the picture now with more observant and dry eyes now. For the first time the initials in the corner registered with her. "BM. Bess Martin. I had no idea she had that kind of talent."

John accepted the topic and said, "Most people have underestimated Bess her whole life. You never know what people are capable of until you give them the chance, and maybe a little pressure. I'm not even sure Bess knew everything she could do until after she'd done it."

Devon shook her head. "Not just Bess, if everything I've been hearing is true." She turned away from the picture and smiled a little sadly. Her tone was serious. "John, what you did—what you all did—I wasn't even sure it could be done. I made myself believe it when there was no other choice, and I asked everyone else to believe it, too. But I just—I wasn't sure." She closed her eyes briefly, and then opened them again. "It's good to be sure."

He knew that of course. He'd gone to bed every night with his own doubts crowding his mind, echoed by Devon's fears. It had surprised him at first to realize that the unshakable Devon had been no more certain than he that they would reach their destination and be able to start a real life on a foreign planet. But as the days wore on, he found himself voicing sureties he didn't feel, to get the others to continue moving, and it didn't surprise him anymore.

But he didn't remind Devon that he remembered everything she'd thought and felt up until the day that cryopod had closed. He even had a shaky vision from the inside of the cryopod of the door closing. But if he said that, he belittled the words she'd shared with him. So he just nodded.

Crossing into the kitchen, he reached into the cold storage unit and poured himself some cold water. He then reached into the cabinet and pulled out a second glass and filled it with more water.

Setting both glasses on the table, he pulled out a chair and sat down. Devon knew better than to wait for an invitation, so she pulled out a second chair and thanked him for the glass of water.

There was silence for a moment, while Devon sipped at her water. Then John said, staring into his glass, "We almost lost Yale."

Devon felt a flash of pain that could have been for Yale, or herself, or could have been for John. She just responded with the obvious. "But you didn't."

He turned the glass with his hand for a moment, then looked up at her. "I nearly lost everyone a few dozen times, actually. Hell, I went to the edge myself more times than I can count. But this was different."

Devon reached over to stop the hand that was fiddling with the glass. "John, you didn't lose anyone. It was a hard journey. Anyone would understand if—if you didn't all make it to the end. But you did."

He glanced down at the hand she didn't realize was covering his. "We almost lost Yale," he said again. "I made the choice. There was—well, you can look it up, Julia could explain it better. But he was in a lot of pain, there were no cryopods. And I told Julia to do something. Better he didn't die slowly. But she ignored me and somehow managed to save him."

She tilted her head and said, her voice tinged with amusement, "Well, I hope you punished her good for disobeying orders."

"Devon," he said, with some asperity.

"John," she said his name in the same tone. "You led a handful of people, most ill-prepared for this planet, a couple of thousand klicks across foreign wasteland. You made some bad decisions. What do you think I'm going to do? Bite your head off?"

He grinned wryly, "Well, actually, yes. It crossed my mind."

She pulled her hand away and looked at him haughtily, tapping a finger on the table. "Well, I'm not going to. Thanks for all you've done, and I'll be happy to hear your report, but I'm certainly not going to sit here and listen to you recap all the bad decisions you've made in the last four years. I'm sure the list is quite long."

He grabbed her hand again, and held it firmly between both of his, looking at it, rather than at her. Her hand was thin, the fingers long and elegant. He traced the calluses on her palm, still there from her time on the road thanks to the cryopod. "Two and a half years."

"I'm sorry, what?" Devon asked, distracted slightly by the warmth she could feel coming through her hand. This was a physical man, she had to remember, prone to casual gestures like this one. She marveled at how simple it was, to give and get comfort from someone's hand. So human, so alive.

"Two and a half years," John repeated, "since Yale. We'd just reached the ocean. Had a couple days south to walk. We were so close, almost there, and I thought we'd done it. I wasn't really thinking about any more obstacles, so I guess I forgot to be on guard. Every time I think about how we reached New Pacifica, I remember that if Julia had listened to me, we all wouldn't have made it." He grimaced. "I'm really sorry, Devon."

She liked the feel of his hand holding hers. She liked the feel of sitting down to a close conversation with a good friend. Because he _was_ a good friend, she reached over and slapped him hard across the face. And because she liked her hand in his, she used her _other_ hand to do it.

"What the hell?!" he roared, eyes narrowed in disbelief.

She smiled at him smugly. "You were getting hysterical. I believe that's the way you handle hysterics."

His voice smoldered with words carefully bitten out. "I was telling you something I thought you should know because, oh I don't know, I thought you cared about what happened to the people who were your responsibility."

Her eyes quickly went from amused to blazing. "Don't you dare imply that I don't care about each and every single person within 500 miles of this place, Earthling and Terrian alike. What I don't care for, is listening to you confess your sins and blame yourself for only doing the best you could do. You want to play that game? Sure, let's do that. My turn. Firestein. Wentworth."

"They weren't your fault!" he yelled. Hal Firestein and Alex Wentworth had been close friends of his. He felt their deaths more keenly than Devon ever could have.

"My expedition. My trip. My plans!" she yelled, pounding at the table with her free hand for emphasis. It certainly was sturdy, because the water glasses didn't so much as shake. "You want to pull up a list of passengers who died when the ship crashed, too? Because I know all those names already. How about Eben? And Sheppard?" She paused for breath. "You know what? I think I'm winning."

He glared at her. It hurt that she would bring up Sheppard. It shouldn't, but it did. He tried to stay away from those memories, thinking to give her some privacy. But he couldn't deny that he knew her feelings for Sheppard had run deep, however preposterous he personally felt the whole situation was. Thinking on that grated.

"Danziger, you're hurting my hand," she said through gritted teeth.

He looked down to see that he was indeed grasping her hand rather tightly. He thought he'd remembered how infuriating she was. Apparently his memory was rather dimmer than he had thought. He loosened his hold, but didn't let go. "I'm sorry, Devon," he apologized, trying to sound sincere.

"Good, are we done, then?" she snapped, anger still hard in her eyes, tugging her hand free.

"Devon," he said, tiredly, "I'm sorry that I implied that you didn't care about everyone." He ran a hand through his hair, and laughed at himself. "This wasn't how I meant to have this conversation, you know. I thought it'd be more like, I apologize and explain, and you yell at me for being an incapable idiot for a bit, and then you forgive me after Yale convinces you to."

She wouldn't have been that insensitive and close-minded. She wouldn't have. He should know better. Of all people, he should know better. "Well, you don't think very highly of me, do you?" Devon said quietly, the anger fading, and a tiny hurt beginning to form somewhere in the back of her heart.

He leaned forward in his chair, until his face was inches from hers, startling her. She wanted to pull back, but something in his eyes, or maybe it was her pride, held her still. She could feel her breath clogging up into her throat, and her heart had begun pounding too hard again.

She must have exerted herself too much while she had been yelling.

He just looked at her for a moment, his eyes boring into hers, and then he said, "If you can slap me when I say something stupid, does that mean I can slap you when you say something stupid?"

She almost missed the words he said, she was concentrating so hard on the look on his face. She thought she should be able to understand it, but she couldn't make it out. Then the words registered, snapping her out of her thoughts. "What? Of course you can't slap me!" Her eyebrows narrowed in indignation.

He nodded, slowly. "I thought not." Though he told himself not to, he reached out to brush a lock of hair from her face. "But for the record, that was an incredibly stupid thing to say. You know better than that."

He made himself lean back in his chair, and all of a sudden Devon had breathing room again. She felt slightly light-headed, in a strange sort of way. Like maybe the room was spinning a bit. The fingertips on her face had been gentle and strong at the same time. She didn't know why that made her stomach feel fluttery, but she was fairly sure the two were connected.

"I'm sorry," she said. Funny, they were just apologizing left and right, weren't they?

"For slapping me?" he asked.

Devon shook her head. "Of course not. I'm serious, I don't want to hear any more of this about Yale. I'm sure Yale forgives you, and you have no need to ask my forgiveness. No, I'm sorry for…all the other stuff. I didn't come here to argue with you."

"Okay, I'll take that," John said, after a moment. "I didn't expect to have to ask for a truce this soon, but we're okay?"

She grinned. "Yeah, we're fine. I feel pretty good, actually. No one else would have let me yell, I was beginning to think I was turning into a docile female."

"I wouldn't believe it in a million years."

She eyed him reflectively. "I could do docile, you know."

"Yeah, but who would want you to?" he asked with a frown.

She laughed. "Well, I really do feel better." She started to get up from her chair. "But, I need to get back," Devon said. "Thank you for the drink." She laughed again. "And for the change of pace. Being 'Sick-Devon' isn't nearly as much fun as being 'Devon Adair: Fearless Leader.' Or even 'Devon Adair: Shrew.' So thank you for that, I guess."

"Anytime," he said, as he took her glass over to the sink. He followed her to the door as she got her shoes, and she said goodbye and started back down the street.

He stood there for a few moments, staring at the door, replaying the conversation. So much for planning things out. For someone who knew everything there was to know about Devon Adair, she was not an easy one to anticipate. But still, somehow he thought everything went well. He was still staring at the door when True walked in a few moments later.

"Hey Dad,"she called in greeting. "Did you know I just saw Devon go down the street?"

He nodded. "Yeah, she was just here."

True thought to herself that that explained the bemused look on his face. "Oh," she said, waiting to see if her dad would elaborate. He didn't disappoint her.

"Uly wasn't home." He didn't know why he said that. True could see he wasn't home, and Devon hadn't even asked where he was, come to think of it. "I gave her some water."

That was about all True needed to get enough to work on. Devon had been smiling as she walked down the street, and from what little her dad said, it sounded like they had a very short, pleasant conversation. That would never do.

"Don't know what in the world she was doing all the way out here," True said casually, as she took off her shoes, and threw them into the pile on the corner. "She knows she's not supposed to walk this far by herself. I was pretty sure Julia restricted her to the area around the hospital." She walked over to the couch and stretched herself out on it in a tired fashion.

"What are you talking about?" John asked, rather crossly.

"Oh, you know Devon," True shrugged airily. "Probably feeling stifled under the restrictions, wanted a little independence. Struck out on her own." She let an expression of worry cross her face. "Although, her color really didn't look all that good, now that I think about it. Maybe she shouldn't have gone so far by herself." She made as if to get back up, but was too late, as her dad was already darting out the door.

She smiled to herself and said, "That oughta do it."

Through the open door came Uly, who said, "Why was Dad running out of here without any shoes on?"

True explained what she'd just done, and added, "Two nights of kitchen duty says my dad takes your mom."

Uly shook his head. "You're on. Sick or not, my mom is still a match for dad."

As one they both raced for the door to see if they could watch what was happening down the street.

---------------------------

AN: I've been working on this blasted chapter forever. Every time someone made a review, or sent me a message, I would haul it out and try to finish it. But I just couldn't bring myself to. And I just couldn't bring myself to let it remain unfinished forever. Even if I can't close things out as well as I start them, this blasted thing WILL finish. One day. Next chapter…I'm going to aim at getting it out in less than a year. :-( Eek.


End file.
